SAST Wingees

Couple PJs for the weekend

How do they greet a jaguar in Andhra Pradesh with respect ?
Jaguarandi
What is the holy text of Pigs in Punjab ?
Guru “Grunt” Sahib Notes: read Jaguarandi as rhyming with Yemandi. BTW Jaguarandi is also a type of big cat.  Both PJs designed by yours truly !

Scotland

Had been to Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling) a couple of weeks ago – back to earth now. What a place !!

‘ Picture postcard come alive’ is a phrase that immediately trips down the tongue – lush green meadows, serene lochs (lakes), old and eerie castles filled with tales of battles, illicit relationships and amorous liaisons. One could spend endless hours and money and still long for more.

Must see:

The Edinburgh castle (takes 5-6 hours to glance through the various facets). One could easily spend 2 days on this alone.

Loch Lomond , the largest fresh water lake in Europe (the guide referred to it as the largest in world – not quite sure ) that skirts the only nudist camp in the UK .

Stirling castle and the Wallace museum , which capture the exploits of Robert Bruce and Braveheart . Incidentally Braveheart or William Wallace was 7’4” tall and his sword was a mighty 5 feet. Mel Gibson was certainly a poor man’s version .

Edinburgh Botanic Gardens – if you’dlike the kids to run around a bit in the green and keep them from pestering you with a million questions

Shopping: The Scotland Woolen Centre, en-route Stirling – advisable not to take your credit card – high quality woolens at competitive prices – you end up buying more than what you require. You could feed the eagles at the Shop’s doorstep for £2 ( you could make them sit on your hand for an additional £1) and earn their blessings – Scottish Kili Josiyam.

Snippets :

The Scottish sheep is as big as the Chennai cow ; what’s more, it comes in many packs – 3 horns , 4 horns and one of them had 6. Take your pick.

Busses in Edinburgh require you to drop the exact change in the slot, to the last penny – else you do not board .

Wallet Watch : A 5 day trip for 2 adults and 2 kids , from London would cost about £1000. You would end up staying in some of the best hotels /apartments , fly BA . Not too bad for such beautiful memories.

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It is mostly tech. related though!!
Ganesh

Ashta bil Asal – a lebanese sweet – the piece de resistance

We were at a lebanese restaurant (Vine Valley Lebanese Cuisine)  last weekend at “The Street” in Paterson, NJ – the “oaktree road” or “devon street” of the arabs in NJ. As we finished the lunch, we inquired about desserts (one of the brothers that own the restaurant was our waiter) and we asked specifically if there is some atypical sweet on the menu. Our man immediately jumped and pointed to the dish called “Ashta bil Asal”  as if he was waiting for us to ask such a question. He told us further that this recipe was really rare and you could not get it anywhere else in NJ or for that matter in the US – mind you, we were in the arab bastion, so this lofty claim got our interests really piqued.  He also mentioned that his brother was manning the kitchen and the recipe was his special one. You could easily tell the pride of workmanship from his gestures as well.  He also listed the ingredients for us to which we tentatively responded “we think we make something similar in India”.  He violently objected saying this sweet was not made by anybody else in the world. So it was becoming clear that we were on to something. In a few minutes, the dessert was served. It was a delectable mix of clotted cream (Ashta), semolina, strawberries, bananas, honey(asal) and other secret ingredients.  We had never eaten anything like this before.  The quality was so good we almost got goosebumps. There is something magical about the quality of the experience,  when you can sort of experience the joy, and pride of workmanship almost as much as the creator experienced. More on this magical aspect of quality later. I am sure all of us experience this from time  to  time. As a matter of curiosity, i did a google search for the dish and came up with one  potential place to get this sweet in LA.  That was the only link in the whole wide world of  Google. So probably it is rare indeed.

Arnold Schwarzenegger – Master of the “S” Curve ?

The “S” Curve has been bothering me a lot both from an indvidual and corporate perspective. Sometimes i think it is probably a self fulfilling prophecy, but on the other hand there is a preponderance of data in support of it.

In line with the “S” curve thinking, there is probably something that goes with success that prevents us from succeeding again and again. As i started looking at the harmful aspects of success, i came across an extremely interesting book –  Paradox of Success by John R O’Neil. Here is an excerpt:

Success may breed failure

John gets an early morning phone call from a Fortune 500 corporation. The CEO had locked himself in his office and was refusing to come out.  John was shocked by this event as had known the CEO very well. To his knowledge, the CEO was a hard driving leader and extremely competent as well.

John analyses this CEO’s problem and many other high profile failures and in the process explains how there is a clear pattern in the way we learn. Apparently, when level of expertise is plotted with respect to time, you guessed it right, it traces an “S” Curve.

Slope of Diminishing Returns

When we begin learning a skill, we are a bit slow initially at the tail of the “S” curve. As time progresses, learning proceeds at a dramatic speed helping us to climb the steep the slope of the “S” curve very quickly. At the top of the slope, we are deemed experts in that particular skill. From now on even if we put a lot of effort in improving ourselves in that area, the resultant learning will not be proportional. The top end of the “S” curve is also called as the slope of diminishing returns.  At the top of the “S” curve many people succumb to the effects of hubris, which gives them a false sense of security because the world believes and acknowledges that they are the resident experts in that field. Unfortunately, the world keeps moving and some other new skill has become important which renders this expert obsolete.

Mountains of Learning

Is there a way out ? What do we do after we reach the peak of the “S” curve ?

To answer that question, I would like to use a metaphor of mountains.  Climbing a mountain is sort of similar to learning new skills. Initially we start at the bottom of the mountain with a clear estimate and a timeline to climb the mountain. As we come to grips with the terrain of the mountain, we are able to climb more efficiently and reach the summit.  Having reached the summit, you cannot stay there for long depending on the altitude of the summit.  For instance, if  we were climbing Mt. Everest, we can be there at the peak only for a few minutes due to atmospheric conditions and human limitations.

Therefore, we have to start our descent pretty soon. But if we are keen mountaineers, we set our sights on the next mountain to climb. In a similar way, when we reach the top of the “S” curve of a particular skill we should start the “S” curve of the next important skill. Ultimately, our skill set should look like a mountain range with a lot of mountains (or a lot of “S” curves)  in it representing various skills that we have learnt.

Learning new skills is really very important for us to lead a successful life. In our Information Age today, where everything you do is skills-based, learning has become even more critical. The “S”  curve does seem to have a lot of truth in it, we should ensure that we are never caught on top of it for too long!

Master of the “S” Curve

I think many of us trace multiple “S” curves in our lives as we learn new skills but mostly these are incremental or continuous transitions. To take the idea to its extreme, I wanted to see if there is anyone out there who we could call the Master of the “S” curve – per my definition, that someone should have atleast 3 discontinuous “S” curves (major career transitions) in their lives.  I set the threshold at 3 because a lot of people have 2 “S curves – for instance, many politicians come from other walks of life so a lot of them automatically have 2 “S” curves.  Using a quick and dirty research approach, i looked at  individuals both contemporaries and historical, including the TIME 100 greatest people, 100 greatest people of all time . I  excluded innately multi-faceted geniuses such as Leonardo Da Vinci. Of course, i did not include people who did not become famous because it is hard to know about them.
 
Believe it or not I could shortlist only 2 people – Albert Schweitzer (musician/theologist, doctor, humanitarian/social reformer),  Benjamin Franklin (printer/publisher, inventor, statesman/politican).
 
As i was thinking about this subject, i came across this amazing story of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s climb to the top. Although this story is categorizing him as a phenomenal salesman, to me it exemplifies the capability to keep re-inventing oneself systematically. Arnie,  in my opinion is one that has 3 “S”  curves (bodybuilder, actor, governor) in his career. Wired magazine’s latest issue (Sep 2004) has featured Arnie on its cover and the cover story mentions that Warren Buffett has compared Arnie to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Only time will tell if he truly belongs in the august company of Ben Franklin, Albert Schweitzer and FDR.

“S” Curve is Omnipresent

The “S” curve is actually a more widespread phenomenon. Researchers have proved that the it closely mirrors product life cycles in the market, species life cycles etc.

 
Volterra and Lotka built  a set of mathematical equations known as Lotka-Volterra’s Equations (Counterpoint1  Counterpoint2) which they used to model the predator-prey population.  Later Cesare Marchetti, an Austrian Physicist used the equations to predict energy demands.

If you want to learn more about the fascinating applications of  “S” curves, please read Predictions by Dr. Theodore Modis, where he uses them to model the staying power of products, birthrate among women, number of fatal car accidents and many others.  “S” Curves have now been applied to project management as well.

Thinking further – are there corporations who have 3+ discontinuous or major “S” curves ? – something to think and write about later.