Book Review: The Fuzzy and the Techie

If you had majored in the Humanities or Social Sciences you were a fuzzy. If you had majored in Computer Science, you were a techie. This informal division quietly found its way into a default assumption that has misled the business world for decades – that it’s the techies who drive innovation. This book clearly articulates the importance of the liberal arts in our techno centric world.

But in this brilliantly contrarian book, Hartley reveals the counter-intuitive reality of business today; it’s actually the fuzzies not the techies who are playing the key roles in developing the most creative and successful business ideas. Author looks inside some of the world’s most dynamic new companies, reveals breakthrough fuzzy – techie collaborations and explores how such associations are at the centre of innovation in business, education and government and why the liberal arts are still relevant in our techie world.

The book’s early chapters explore how, underappreciated and largely unnoticed, “fuzzy” skills have already proven themselves to be complements to coding talent. Numerous examples, from Palantir’s national security insights to Stitch Fix’s wardrobe recommendations, make the point that combining human and algorithmic intelligences often leads to better results than a purely automated approach. Fuzzy insights provide the driving force for new businesses, whether it is social messaging application Slack or school/parent communication tool Remind. In later chapters, Hartley uses example after example to make the case that the liberal arts’ concerns for ethics, understanding of human motivations, and insights into social dynamics can find a productive home in the technology world.

Author also highlights the human skills needed to find the “novel patterns” in big data, shows How high-tech tools such as satellites have become much more accessible to breakthrough thinkers of all backgrounds, and offers case studies of and shout-outs to blended businesses such as StitchFix, which utilizes both algorithms and skilled stylists, and Talkspace, which provides access to lower-cost therapy via an online platform. He also dips into the idea of design ethics, such as those involved in programming self-driving cars or providing people with default choices that affect behavior.

When you look at many of the great creative minds of our times and humanity in general, brilliant people are good at many things. Da Vinci, known as a painter and sculptor among other things but also the earliest person to sketch the idea for the helicopter. Many brilliant scientists and mathematicians are also often great musicians or painters too.

This is a revelatory and original book of particular importance in India, where students are unduly pressurized to gain admission into institutes of technology in the hope that they will be at the forefront of change and innovation in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. Our greatest leaders are those who have depth of human understanding and empathy.

Planning Career in Job changing Market

Remember good old days. The streets were safe. Goods were cheap. Jobs were aplenty. You got promoted every few years. You had an income for life. But the world has changed. Neither your city nor your job is safe anymore. Hiring intentions are at a 12-year low in India as a Manpower Group Report. Businesses are evolving rapidly. Whatever you do now will transform in three years or your employer will get it done cheaper and faster either through technology or by a younger placement.

Dying Assets

Skills – Sticking to your current skill set is a sure shot way to becoming redundant. Are you an accountant who knows how to keep books? This single skill earlier could get you a job and keep you there for a lifetime? Just a few years back, this skill became useless if you could not use accounting software. Similarly, a single change called GST meant that your contribution to your employer dropped dramatically unless you were willing to learn new skills.

Knowledge – The knowledge that you held today and spent years in acquiring and polishing is worth far lesser if you take a single year sabbatical from continuous learning. With Internet penetration, knowledge is incredibly cheap and even the youngest patient and legal client questions and double checks the service he is getting versus the price he is paying. Similarly, companies are learning that it is noncompetitive to pay senior professionals more than their knowledge alone. A youngster with less than half the experience can acquire that knowledge at a substantially lower salary.

Labor – Work hard and you will succeed is terrible standalone advice in the current job market. For every job that requires human hours, someone somewhere is working on technology to reduce time required to do a task to make you either more productive or redundant. From manufacturing to services to knowledge work, your labor hours are being replaced by technology solutions that help your company reduce costs and increase productivity.

Technology – Massive changes in the technology that you used 2-3 years back forced you to head back to the classroom to upgrade or become irrelevant. Relying on your comfort with current technology in your job is the fastest route to losing your job to the next savvy professional who comes along. Artificial Intelligence in language/data, robotics/3D printing, Internet of Things in goods/manufacturing/labor and Internet/computing in knowledge/education are rapidly evolving technology spaces where your comfort levels in using them needs to keep pace to stay professionally relevant.

Growth Assets

Sales – The Primary difference between being merely skilled being successful lies in how you work with others. To achieve this, you require the ability to communicate and sell your ideas to others. Work on your negotiation skills to master the art of reaching agreement on common goals and process.

Learning – Stay curious and stay hungry. If your current skills and knowledge are redundant, the only thing that you will ever require is the ability to learn. This is an acquired skill. The first step is to be intensely curious. Observe children who have the steepest learning curves simply because they are constantly curious about the world around them. No learning will ever go waste and no employer will ever let go of someone who can connect the dots across business and solve problems.

Creating – You will do well to set aside at least two hours every weekend to just pause and think. Ask yourself what happened in the previous week or month, what new knowledge you acquired and how you can improve your plan for the future.

How to Survive

Be Paranoid – What could go wrong in your job? How will you find your next source of income?

Double Up – Get a second career, work a second shift, sell to a second client or acquire a second skill.

Stay fit – Investing in achieving high fitness levels increases ability and time required for learning and growth.

Stay Sharp – To stay alive and kicking in your career, keep your mind ticking by constantly challenging and feeding it.

Grow People – The way to attract and lead people is to teach them, help them solve problems and unlock their potential.

Ways to stay ahead in Digital Advertising

In the last three decades, the evolution of the advertising industry has accelerated almost unimaginably. The gradual movement from Print to Audio, and then to Television, has been replaced by the leaps and bounds of the digital age. If we are going to continue to meet the industry’s needs, it’s vital that we adapt quickly to keep up. No matter how much support executives offer, though, a big part of learning is self-directed. Here are some tips:-

Be Curious – Research shows that not only are we better at learning things we are interested in, but we’re also actually more receptive to new information, regardless of subject, when we’re working on something that inspires our curiosity. With practice, we can cultivate curiosity as a habit.

Emulate – When we see something that works, whether it’s a stunning ad campaign or an innovative workflow, replication alone will yield few results. When we come across a successful campaign it behooves us to ask what problem was solved or what challenge was overcome. By bringing this curiosity to bear effective solutions, we can better understand which pieces are relevant to our work.

Learn from Mistakes – Our brains are wired to learn from the decisions of others, and the kick we get when they stumble may be an evolutionary incentive to take note of where they fell short. Understanding why a seemingly airtight presentation missed its mark can help us avoid making similar mistakes in the future and can point us to areas with high growth potential.

Stay Informed – Keeping up on developments in the industry is critical to our own growth.

Be Attentive – While the toolkits and strategies our competitors use to forge ahead are often secret, their impact on the product is visible to anyone who takes the time to look.

Experiment – It’s important to continuously experiment with new workflows and techniques. There is no need to throw out the rulebook, but adding your own flourish to a tied and true tool or including a new approach in an otherwise conventional project, can be a great learning opportunity.

Plan Learning Time – By blocking out time in our busy schedules and setting concrete benchmarks, we can make learning a more engaged and rewarding experience.

Be Proactive – If there is a question you have, asking for a training module, or even just a clarifying comment, could benefit not just you, but the whole team.

Find a Mentor – Mentors can help situate developments in a broader view of the industry, not only helping us triangulate where we are but also building a more nuanced picture of what is to come.

Know yourself – We can only become truly effective learners by focusing the same critical eye on our own work that we do on the work of others.

Using these insights to set goals for ourselves and to inform an evolving strategy of success is the only way to effectively apply the learning techniques we integrate into our lives.

Effects of Technology on Life

According to studies, the average millennial picks up the smartphone 150 times a day. This over-dependence on tech is known as technology addiction. In 2008, a study conducted at Scotland’s Dundee University found that adults over the age of 55 who grew up in a household with a black and white TV set were more likely to dream in Black and white. Younger participants, who grew up in the age of Technicolor, nearly always experienced their dreams in color. The American Psychological Association seconded these findings in 2011.

Over-usage of technology damages the brain systems connecting emotional processing, attention and decision-making. A new study links anxiety, severe depression, suicide attempts and suicide with the rise in use of smartphones, tablets and other devices.

FOMO – Fear of Missing Out is defined by The New York Times as “the blend of anxiety”, inadequacy and irritation that can flare up while skimming social media. Social Media is bombarded with pictures and posts of scrumptious dinners, raging parties and enviable travel check-ins. These activities might not be one’s idea of fun, but when one recognizes that pang, “Should I be doing something else right now?” that’s FOMO.

Phantom Vibration Syndrome – This is the perception that one’s mobile is vibrating and ringing when it is not. It is characterized as a tactile hallucination since the brain perceives a sensation that is not present. Psychologists suggested that physical sensations, such as an itch, may be misinterpreted by the brain as a vibrating phone. Majority of cell phone users report experiencing phantom vibrations, with reporting rates ranging from 27.4% to 89%.

Shortened Attention Span – The constant use of technology has shortened our attention span from 12 Minutes to 5 Minutes. Constant news feeds and videos that are 10 Minutes or less has rewired our brains. People who are online an average of 5 hours a day have trouble remembering people’s names.

Popcorn Brain – The constant stimulation from electronics makes our brain accustom to “popping”, fast paced stream of information that we find on the internet. This is why we are becoming increasingly less adept to handle the slower pace of real life. This condition is known as “Popcorn Brain”.

Technology has altered human physiology. It affects memory, attention spans and sleep cycles. This is attributed to a scientific phenomenon known as neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to alter its behavior based on new experiences. Tech addiction may be a risk factor for alcohol and other drug abuse. People who overuse technology develop similar brain chemistry and neutral patterning to those who are addicted to substances.

Brain scans of people with tech addiction disorder are similar to those of people with substance addictions of alcohol, cocaine and cannabis.

Disadvantages of Cashless Payments

In continuation of last article, here are the disadvantages of Cashless Payments:-

Higher Risk of Identity Theft – Since we are culturally not attuned to digital transactions, even well educated people run the risk of falling into phishing traps. With the rising incidence of online fraud, the risk of hacking will only grow as more people hop on to the digital platform. Besides, the latest move by the government to remove the two-factor authentication process for online transactions up to 2,000 will not help.

Losing Phone – Since one will be dependent on phone for all transactions on the move, losing it can prove to be a double whammy. It can not only make susceptible to identify theft, but one could also be rendered helpless in the absence of physical cash or any other payment option. This can be especially problematic if you are travelling abroad or in smaller towns or villages with lack of banking infrastructure or other payment options.

Another drawback is that you need to keep your phone constantly charged. If the phone dies on you, you will be stranded, particularly if you are in the middle of an important purchase or dealing with an emergency.

Difficult for Tech Unsavvy – India has a low Internet penetration of 34.8%, and only 26.3% of all mobile phone users have a smartphone. The digital medium may prove a challenge for the tech unfriendly people, who will need more time to adapt or the availability of other options to conduct transactions.

Overspending – While there is no denying the convenience of card or mobile wallet transactions, it could open a spending trap for an unsuspecting population. Using cash instead of cards or mobile wallets acts as a natural bulwark for people who find it difficult to control their spending.

Besides, a high penetration of the digital payment system is contingent on the fact that the same amount of cash does not come back into circulation. If it does, people are more likely to switch back to the former ease of using cash as it is a habit that they may find difficult to break.

Technology – Boon or Bane for Teenagers

Human beings are lazy by nature and would love it if other people did all their work. The introduction of technology has done precisely that. If you notice, over the years we have stopped writing letters, we now write informal emails. We do not remember phone numbers; we depend on our phones to remember them for us. We do not remember birthdates, Facebook does that for us and we also wish people online now instead of making that two minute personal phone call.

Teenagers are the biggest victims and addicts of technology. They are desperate to stay connected. They’re afraid to be left out, as they feel they will miss something. This leads to a constant feeling of needing to be “on”. It is like a substance addiction. Children are so overloaded with information that they cannot focus, thereby they retain very little. Teenagers are looking for instant gratification and acceptance of who they are from their peers and Social Media gives them that platform.

Every picture or post they upload gets them a few likes and comments. This boosts their morale and that triggers the release of Dopamine, the feel good chemical. Technology is also a boon. It has connected people from all over the world. Years ago, friends would lose touch with each other because there were limited models of communication. However, today one can keep in touch with all your friends all over the world via Whatsapp, Viber, Skype, Facebook and others. Technology has increased awareness.

Technology has helped reduce the use of paper. Technology has encouraged self-learning. It is a wonderful tool if we use it appropriately. Excessive exposure to any activity will become a bane, hence it is important to limit screen time. Technology can be used for reading, enhancing analytical skills, editing videos and more. We need to make the best use of the digital world. 

Resetting Green Revolution

India’s agriculture became moribund decades ago, and shows no sign of uplift for the long haul needed. Indeed, the rain gods have played havoc with Indian farmers. But not just the gods, Indian states have done precious little to tackle the problem head-on. The government solution is to give financial sops to farmers to buy peace from time to time. It is equally unfortunate that farmers just accept the sops and go away, only to return when hard times hit them again.

India’s agricultural growth rate has hovered around 2-3% annually, when in fact it should be at least 5%. Former Prime Minister said Indian agriculture must grow at least at 4% without which there will be no real rural poverty alleviation and no relief to distressed farmers. India’s green revolution is fatigued and needs a scientific and technological boost.

Indian agriculture is sick and it needs a strong dose of bitter medicine Market based solutions are the only way forward. India investment in agricultural science and technology and rural infrastructure must be upped by 25% and Indian council of Agricultural research must be turned into a private research corporation headed by a business minded CEO and private equity participation must be brought into India’s agricultural R&D.

Secondary agriculture must drive rural economic development. Small-scale farmers and subsistence farming must be gradually phased out as its size is not economically viable in 21^st century. No amount of shoring up economically unviable agriculture can help. Stubbornly persisting on flogging a dead horse is not going to improve the farmer’s plight. The NDA government has given no evidence of its intent to set a future looking agenda so far. That is not good for the nation neither for the NDA electoral fortunes in the years to come. It needs to act fast.

Rural Connect is boon for Indian MNCs

Seven countries in Asia (India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Philippines) and three in Africa (Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia) collectively include about 2.2 Billion rural consumers out of more than 3.4 Billion rural consumers in the world and 3 Billion rural consumers in Asia and Africa. In India, more than 800 Million consumers live in rural markets and more than 150 Million rural migrants living in urban centres maintain links with their families, visiting them during festivals, weekends, and other occasions.

Rural Migrants living outside India are connected with their families through Skype and mobile phones. In BRIC countries Brazil and Russia are most urbanized with less than 15% and 26% of their population living in rural areas. Brazil is more urbanized than USA. USA urban population size is more than 80%. India and China are far away from USA. Now, it becomes very difficult for a company to grow in these markets. In India, progressive company grows by having an inclusive strategy that focuses on both on Urban and Rural consumers. It is in their DNA.

Consider HUL, although it is a European MNC but its DNA in India is rural along with Pakistan and Bangladesh. HUL caters need of more than 1 Billion rural consumers. Reaching Rural Consumer by “Missed Call” is the new thing adapted by companies in India. Even the Indian TV Industry is using Rural or semi-rural settings and stories to create successful TV serials. Many NGOs are helping rural people to connect them with urban areas and inclined them towards technology.

In my Opinion, the rural DNA of Indian MNCs is their biggest strategic asset that will be hard for any other country to match. They understand how to appeal to the aspirations of rural consumers amidst lack of infrastructure, economic and language diversity, and unorganized retail markets. Technology will drive Indian MNCs and rural consumers to connect with each other and make India a better country in the world.

New Government vision of 100 smart cities will turn out to be positive factor and Indian MNCs will grow more. Their strategy of connecting with people will shift more towards consumer aspirations and service, not to build awareness. To make a better future and country Round Robin work has to be done, and then only we will be counted as citizen of developed nation.