Saurabh Garg on The New New Thing

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The audience enjoyed it. Media went into a frenzy. Record books were re-written. Everyone won. Except the game. I am talking about Virendra Sehwag’s triple-ton. In course of reaching that magical number, he made umpteen number of records and everyone was mesmerized with this performance. I have a slightly different view to offer.

The pitch was as flat as a table-tennis table and anyone who could hold a bat would be able to score runs. A score of 300 plus is just another number and we should not let the bigger picture out of sight.

What Virendra Sehwag did was commendable and not a lot of people have been able to achieve it. He should be amply rewarded for the same. But did it contribute to India winning the match? Did it even help us get close to the win? People might argue that he saved us from a defeat. But again do they really think that if he did not bat, we would have been dismissed for 200 twice and we would then loose by an innings?

Wondering if we can make a pitch that gives a 90 degrees turn to bowlers, we can have all bowling records for us. Then lets make a ground that is as small as the 30 yard circle. We can then have records for maximum number of sixes, fastest 10, 30, 50, 100 etc. Is it awards and records that we chase? Or is it the game that has to be bigger than everything else? Obviously, history does not remember conditions in which records were made. Only the number stands. And numbers are all that matters.

Can we have someone take cognizance of this and take control of pitches and other things affecting cricket before its too late?

Disclaimer: I am die-hard cricket fan and ardent supporter of Indian Cricket.

The Art of Looking Sideways is an awesome book by Alan Fletcher. I just bought a copy.

I had blogged about it earlier also on SaurabhGarg.com (on 13th Jan 2008).

This book should help me with a lot of inspiration about design, advertising, creativity, decision making and thinking. Looking forward to reading it.

And now this book becomes the second most expensive book that I have purchased after Still Reading SRK.

Other links
A vid on Youtube where Alan Fletcher talks about it.

Harold’s Planet is one of the best comic strips on the Internet. Here is another gem from them.

Originally posted here.

Wired has this interesting article today on a new course as University of Washington on thinking like a security personnel.

Reading the article and the course blog, I realized why I always had destructive tendencies. I have always wanted to find a way to pilferage things off the markets, way to steal that large gaming console out of that building, why I always want to look at the about page and login page of a website, and other ways a person can break a system.

Does that mean I have what it takes to be a security professional? No. Does that mean I am a negative person with destructive energies? Certainly No. It means that I am someone who is programmed to think like a security professional and I can use it in other interesting ways.

What could be other interesting ways?
1. Launch a business where you consult people. Consulting is a keyword for all MBAs. All MBAs aspire to be consultants some day irrespective of their level of expertise.

2. Identify a vulnerability and create a business idea around it. Make it social, viral, more importantly feasible. Make money from it and retire.

3. Talk to other people about it. Educate them about a different way to look at things.

What next?
Talk to Prof. Yoshi and see if this course can be taken online.

Are there anymore people who think like that and would want to connect? What could be other ways to use this knack rather than feeling sorry about it?

P.S.: One of my all time favorite fictitious people is Jack Bauer. And more I see 24, more I can relate to way Jack thinks. Or may be every can relate to him and thats why 24 was such a big hit…?

Date: 29th March 2008
Loc: SJSOM, IIT Mumbai
Agenda: None :)

And this “none” agenda makes a barcamp an interesting place to go. I was there for Mumbai Barcamp 2 also and I met few good people there. Hope to bump into more people this time. Also, last time, I saw a lot of people and companies walking in herds and trying to create things without even knowing “the why” question. Hope things change this time around.

Register: http://barcampmumbai.org/BCM3_registrants

As of now 200 people have registered already. Keep watching this space for more.

Update: As on 26th March, more than 400 registrations. Looks promising.

Every marketer sells dreams. If a customer can conjure up an old dream after using your brand, your brand gets a new fan.

P.S.: miniThoughts - thoughts expressed in less than 200 words.

Third in series after Popular vs Pertinent, Expert vs Employee.

Excellence vs Mediocrity

You can either pursue excellence or remain a mediocre.

A mediocre by definition is someone engaging in an act where objective is to finish the task rather than to complete it with best of abilities. Often, shortcuts are used and outcomes are ordinary. Borrowed wisdom is put to work and original thought process takes a back seat.

Excellence is where the objective is to compete with oneself. Idea is to create something out of the world even though the objective is well defined. Excellence could be in way you work, in way you opine of things or even the way you execute. People who pursue excellence sleep easy and tight.

Mediocrity vs Excellence in one line: The pursuit of excellence creates original thoughts that a mediocre person would put to use.

Both these are more about an attitude rather than expertise or availability of resources. And once you start the pursuit of excellence, its very easy to fall in the trap and move back to mediocrity. By definition, most of the human population falls in the mediocre category and funny thing is that they dont even realize it.

You can pursue only one at a time. You could be mediocre or you could be excellent. What are you?

Introducing Idea Economy.

This is second in the 1v1 series after Popular vs Pertinent

I was talking to Monica when I remembered something I had thought of about 5 months ago. Finally posting it.

Expert vs Employee.

You can be seen and known as either an expert or employee.

An employee is a “just another person”. He is competent and does his job well but that is all to him. There is no such thing as new ideas, innovation, bright sparks coming out of him. He is one amongst the crowd. No one expects anything from him.

Expert on the other hand is someone who is everything an employee is and then there is lot more to him. He is expected to change the way world moves, come up with brilliant yet simple ideas and should be as close to indispensable as someone can be. Expert belongs to the rare breed.

Expert vs Employee in one line: You would not want to meet an employee but would pay to see an expert.

And interesting thing is that the distinction between an expert and and employee is often an outcome of the way a person himself thinks and approaches things. Until you start projecting yourself as an expert, no one would consider you an expert.

What are you? Expert? Employee?