Life Lessons
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Questions?
In the word question, there is a beautiful word—quest.I love that word. —ELIE WIESEL Picasso once said, “There is only one way to see things until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes.” In a way asking a different question. “The important and difficult job is never to find the right… Continue reading
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Learning
By three methods we may learn wisdom: By reflection, which is noblest By imitation, which is easiest By experience, which is the bitterest – Confucius Continue reading
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What Occam’s razor principle teaches us about simple explanations?
This principle was, in fact, mentioned and used by many before Ockham, however, Ockham mentioned the principle so frequently and employed it so sharply that it is now known as “Occam’s razor”. The principle tells us that when analyzing competing explanations for a problem or a situation; simpler explanations are more likely to be true than… Continue reading
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Blind spots!
While learning to drive we are taught that blind spots are generally the areas that cannot be seen by a driver through the side and rear-view mirrors. However, in life, a lot of time the blind spots are in front of us and we fail to recognise them. An anecdote from David Foster Wallace beautifully… Continue reading
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What does ‘Alloying’ teach us about team formation?
In chemistry alloying is a process in which two metals (also non-metals) are mixed together to produce a metal with superior properties to either of the metals individually e.g. bronze made from ~90% copper and ~10% tin is harder and chemically more resistant than either copper or tin. In teams, you will have some members… Continue reading
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A wise old owl!
J. D. Rockefeller is considered to be the most successful businessman and wealthiest American of all time. He rarely spoke, made himself inaccessible for hours during his working day, and stayed quiet when someone caught his attention. A refinery worker who was close to Rockefeller once remarked that in a meeting he lets everybody else… Continue reading
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What can businesses learn from exaptation?
The biology term exaptation was coined by great evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould to explain a trait that can evolve because it served one particular function, but subsequently, it may come to serve another. For example, although today most birds use their feathers to fly, it would be incorrect to say that this means that… Continue reading
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What can Einstein teach us about perspective taking?
In his theory of special relativity, Einstein explained to us that two events can happen simultaneously from the perspective of one observer, yet happen at different times from the perspective of the other. And both observers would be right. Imagine that you as an observer standing on a railway platform as a train goes by.… Continue reading
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The Adjacent Possible
Coined by Scientist Stuart Kauffman and popularized by Steven Johnson the term ‘the adjacent possible’ captures the limits and potential of an innovation. In simple term a successful innovation happens when it leverages the strengths of fields/domains around the core invention. For example, PayPal was first introduced as a payment method for transferring money between… Continue reading
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Choice Architecture
Dave Trott shares some interesting examples of choice architecture At a school in the USA, the girls in their early teens had just discovered lipstick. They would go into the female toilets to apply it. Then, giggling, they’d leave imprints of their lips on the large mirror. This made a lot of extra work for… Continue reading
Thinking Space 