My Experiments with Life - Nandu Muralidharan

Stanford Technology Ventures: Classroom experiments in Entrepreneurship

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:56:00 +0000

Check out this brilliant video! Excellent example of out of the box thinking. The winning team's solution is truly genius!! Description: If you had five dollars and two hours, what would you do to make as much money as possible? In this clip, STVP Executive Director Tina Seelig recalls a classroom exercise in creative thinking and entrepreneurship that posed this quandry to student teams. The results were manifold and varied, often taking advantage of locally needed services, niche markets, and valuable time. These in-class experiments contain many valuable lessons on creative thinking in the start-up realm, including skills, ideas, and innovation as assets that always lend value.

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Google Wave: My First Impressions

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Google wave has been one of the hottest topics in net for the last few weeks. Earlier this month when Google opened up Wave for demo most people in the tech world were anxious to check out this cool tool. Lucky me - one of my friends @kuppurao sent me an invite few days back and I finally got the glimpse of the much hyped Wave. Overall it's a cool & geeky tool with a lot of great features. However it's too geeky for common man. When I first looked at the Wave I had no clue on how to use it. I rarely go through a manual to learn a product, I mostly play around and learn the tool. This is one of the very few tools and in fact the first Google product where i had to go through help files, demo videos etc to use this!!! After around 2-3 days(7-8hrs of hands on time) of playing around/learning I am finally beginning to understand Wave and appreciate it. Here's are some of the things I learnt from using Wave: Each Wave is equivalent of an email. Only difference, it's...

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How a flu invades your body!

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:22:00 +0000

Check out the attached video. Its an very interesting visual representation of how a virus enters our body and spreads. All the stuff shown in the video happens in a split second!

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Morgan Stanley Economy & Internet Trends

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Here's an excellent presentation from Morgan Stanley on economy and internet trends. One of the key trends predicted here is on mobile internet. Iphone has dramatically revolutionized mobile internet. You can see the steep increase in mobile internet adoption, usage and bandwidth consumption since the launch of Iphone. Going forward mobile is going to drive internet penetration into developing countries and the day is not far when mobile internet usage will be higher than desktop/laptop users.. Morgan Stanley Economy Internet Trends

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Hawaii trip Fotos - Maui & Haleakala National Park

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:45:00 +0000

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Hawaii trip Fotos - Big Island & Volcanoes National Park

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:42:00 +0000

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Hawaii trip Fotos - Oahu

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:35:00 +0000

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The Science of Motivation

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:53:00 +0000

Here's an excellent speech made by Dan Pink in TED regarding motivation. Motivation is a key aspect of our lives that keeps us going and egging us on to achieve greater heights. Dan talks about the shift that's happening in the motivation approach in corporate world from the carrot and stick approach of the industrial age to intrinsic motivation of the knowledge age. Intrinsic motivation taps on our inner desire to do things because - they matter to us, we like it, they are interesting and its part of something more important. The key building blocks of intrinsic motivation are: Autonomy - Urge to direct our own lives Mastery - The desire to get better and better at something that matters Purpose - The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves I tend to fully agree with him based on my experience. While compensation is an important part and an employee needs to be adequately compensated to retain him, intrinsic motivation is a key aspect to keep...

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Pace of Life!!

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:28:00 +0000

I came across this excellent article in WSJ - Not so fast regarding the pace of life. This article is bang on target and really got me thinking. So here I am with this blog to air my views! Technology has made phenomenal strides in the last century with the advent of phones, television, computers and finally the internet. These inventions have been very beneficial in connecting us, bringing us closer by shrinking distances & breaking down geographical barriers. Never in the human history have we been more connected, updated on global events and in touch amongst ourselves than in the last few decades. However one of the key unintended consequence of these inventions is, they have been shrinking time and increasing the pace of our lives. I am sure most of us would be feeling this in our day to day life. Each passing day and each new technology/gadget competes for a slice of our time. It invariably eats into our personal time earmarked for us, our family and friends. One of the...

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Gartner Hype Cycle 2009

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:54:00 +0000

Analyst Firm Gartner has released its latest Hype cycle (2009) detailing out some of the latest technology trends for 2009 and beyond. Pls check out the same. Source of the above images: Gartner, RWW You could click on the images to get a better resolution version. When i upload these images it gets a little blurry in blogger. For more details pls refer the following links: Gartner Hype Cycle 2009: Web 2.0 Trending Up, Twitter DownGartner's 2009 Hype Cycle Special Report Evaluates Maturity of 1,650 Technologies

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Circle of Life

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:46:00 +0000

Whew! At last am back blogging after a couple of months break. Last couple of months has been crazy with lots of travel & work. Finally i managed to take some time away to blog. I would like to cover a very interesting concept called circle of life in this post. This came up during a discussion i had with a colleague few weeks back. Given the hectic lifestyles we are in we were discussing on a variety of topics on time management, priorities in life, work-life balance etc. He drew out this very interesting picture which i have elaborated below. Our life can be pictured a set of concentric circles where we as an individual are at the center with the other aspects of of life like family, work, community etc encompassing the core. For us to be successful in the outer circles we need to ensure that we have the inner circles in order and are taken care. If we dont take care of the inner circles the outer circles will eventually breakdown. The order of priority in life reduces as...

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TED Talk: Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:42:00 +0000

Brilliant speech by Nandan Nilekani in Ted about imagining India. Nandan is the visionary CEO of Infosys and the author of the book 'Imagining India'. As part of this speech Nandan explains four brands of ideas that will determine whether India can continue its recent breakneck progress.

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Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:33:00 +0000

'Collapse' is an excellent read. In this book Jared Diamond tries to analyze what caused some of the major civilizations of the past to collapse and what can we learn from their failures. The book is divided into three major sections. In the first two sections Jared does an in depth analysis on several past and modern societies and the factors that led to their success/failure. In the final part of the book he tries to come up with some practical lessons that we can learn from the failure of past societies and how do they apply in today's context. Overall the key message from the book is that environmental destruction and unsustainable development are key reasons for failure of successful societies. Jared picks an diverse set of societies from different geographies, time periods and cultures for this analysis. He has come up a 5 point framework for analyzing each of the societies. The key factors of the framework include environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors,...

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Are we entering an era of pandemics?

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Swine flu has been on top of news for the last couple of weeks. It has been spreading across the globe really fast and on last count around 21 countries have confirmed cases of Swine flu and another 20 more countries had suspected cases. The speed at which this pandemic has spread across the globe has been mind-boggling. The first reported case of Swine flu was in Mexico on April 2nd 2009 and the virulent strain of the swine flu was discovered on April 16th only. Within a short span of 3-4 weeks this has spread to 40 countries across 5 continents putting millions of people at risk! This is not the first time the world has seen pandemics. The biggest one in the not too distant past was the 1918 Spanish flu. This pandemic claimed an estimated 50 million plus lives across the globe. Some of the other significant pandemics that caused large scale impact include 1958 Asian flu,1968 Hong Kong flu etc. The more recent pandemics in this decade include SARS, Avian flu etc. Never before in...

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Rapid growth in technology & innovation - What about sustainability?

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:41:00 +0000

I came across this excellent video on speed of Technology and innovation in YouTube. It really puts things in perspective of the progress we have made in the last several decades/century. 20th century has been the most event filled one in terms of technological progress, innovation & growth in the human history. Never before have we seen several disruptive innovations on a global scale (Ex: Airplane, Automobile, Television, Telephone/cell phone, Computers, Internet etc) within such a short span of time. We made huge progress in almost all fields, most notable amongst those include medicine and science. Technology and innovation has been instrumental in elevating our quality of life and life expectancy. It has shrunk time & distance and enabled us to communicate and express ourselves better. It has made the world one global village! While there are many positives due to technology, there are also several negatives. We have developed several mass destruction weapons and...

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Believe in yourself!

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:00:00 +0000

One of the most widely reported and talked about story this week has been the appearance of Susan Boyle, a 47 year old singer on the show 'Britain's Got Talent'. This has been the most viral video ever with around 50 million views within 72 hours! As part of the show she attempts to sing 'l dreamed a dream' song from Les Miserables and it was a fabulous performance. The complete audience & judges were stunned and they gave her a standing ovation. I found this video very inspirational. Here are some of the key learning's from this: - Belief in self: In life you will always have people who would mock you and doubt your capabilities, having self-confidence and believing in yourself is very critical to success. Initially when Susan came on the stage, both judges and the complete audience were being very cynical and were mocking her. Susan did not let this affect her. She held her nerve and went on to give a fabulous performance. This was possible due to her self-confidence and...

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Dream of flight in a high-tech wingsuit

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:50:00 +0000

This guy rocks!!! Wingsuit jumping is the leading edge of extreme sports -- an exhilarating feat of almost unbelievable daring, where skydivers soar through canyons at over 100MPH. Ueli Gegenschatz talks about how (and why) he does it, and shows jawdropping film. Ueli Gegenschatz takes flight just about every way a human can: paragliding, skydiving, BASE jumping (from the Eiffel Tower), and most breathtakingly by donning a wingsuit and soaring.

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Internet penetration: An analysis

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Came across this interesting presentation by Microsoft on Internet trends in Europe. Europe & North America are leading the pack in terms of internet penetration & usage. By 2010, Internet is expected to overtake television as the primary media as Europe. Europeans are expected to spend more time in Internet than on television! This is a significant milestone in the history of Internet. With this Internet has truly gone mainstream. The trend in North America is similar. Europe Logs OnView more presentations from crossthebreeze. Asia is lagging global Internet penetration by a sizable margin. In terms of absolute number of users Asia is the highest (Thanks to China), However in terms of % penetration we are still a good 5-10yrs behind NA/Europe. Current internet penetration in Asia is in the mid-teens. Internet penetration in most major developing countries in Asia ranges between low single digits to 20%, compare this with Europe/NA where the penetration is north of...

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Future of War: Is Terminator/Matrix scenario going to be a reality?

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:35:00 +0000

I saw an interesting TED speech by P.W. Singer about the future of warfare. As part of his speech Singer shows how widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction -- that now may not be so fictitious. A lot of these technologies are either operational or in prototype today. The day is not far when you will see battalions of robots/machines, and warfare would be fought from remote. One of the key aspect of this robotic warfare is that the profile of soldiers is changing. Soldiers of tomorrow will be techies/nerds that will be remotely operating the robots and directing the warfare from the safety of their desks. This is like an extension from some of the video games that we see today. Some of you techies out there watch out there is an interesting career option opening up for you :) On a positive note ,this is a great innovation and will result in lesser fatalities during war. While these technologies are...

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90% Tax on bonus: Are we being fair?

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:02:00 +0000

AIG bonuses has been the top issue in the news for more than a week now. Almost everyone including media, politicians, public are emotionally charged up. There is so much bad blood and negativity out there. Is all this hype & knee jerk reactions justified? I don't think so. We all seem to be carried away by this hype created/fueled by media & politicians and are failing to look at this in a bipartisan and level headed manner. I agree that careless decisions by some of the senior banking executives led us to this current situation. In reality most of these execs who were responsible for this crisis have already left or have been forced to leave the financial institutions. They have made their money and have got away scot-free. The folks that are remaining are the folks that were working in profitable units of the banks(not involved with crisis), or those that have been hired/charged with fixing this crisis and getting things back in control, or relatively junior folks that...

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High Altitude Wind Energy

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Came across this interesting TED video on high-altitude wind energy. Its amazing that we are just scraping the surface of alternate energy. We are just getting started with wind power as an energy source and currently less than 1.5% of world's energy comes from wind. This is one of the most rapidly growing alternate energy source. Along with solar, wind represents the only renewable source of energy that is substantially larger than the world's current energy needs(72TW capacity vs 15TW global consumption today).Most of the wind energy we are harnessing today is in the lower atmosphere (ground level) where the efficiency is low. This video talks about harnessing wind power at higher altitudes. This is a green field technology with high potential. High-altitude wind energy has the largest energy per square foot of all of the renewable energy technologies (wind, solar, tidal, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal) and a very low cost. Capturing a small fraction of the global high-altitude...

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Auto Meltdown - End of an era (Part III - Final Part)

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:01:00 +0000

In my earlier blogs in this series I had covered about the current state of auto industry and how the US auto industry got into this mess. In this post I be focusing on my thoughts around the future of the auto Industry. Auto Industry is in a serious need for disruptive innovation. The internal combustion engine technology was invented in 1870's in Germany. It is the same technology that has been running our cars for well over 130+ yrs!! While there has been improvements, optimizations etc the base technology is still the same. Compare this with other fields - Energy/Power, Medicine, Telecom, IT, Aviation or any other field for that matter, we've had multiple disruptive innovations and technology has evolved leaps and bounds during the last century. Due to cheap availability of oil, the auto industry was complacent and failed to innovate. The auto industry in the current state is not sustainable. The technology running our autos need a complete refresh and be environment friendly...

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Who should be blamed?

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:22:00 +0000

Here's an excellent post "Bankers aren't special.. But Banks are" by one of my friends from the banking industry. As part of this post she talks about the double standards where we praise banks/bankers when they generate great returns and slam them when things turn sour. Here's my detailed response to the same. I agree with her view that bankers get paid more as banks are wealth creation engines. Here are couple of points I would like to add on why bankers are paid more - high level of complexity/highly intellectual nature of their work(similar to IT) and high level of risk they deal with as part of their jobs- higher the risk higher the returns! Rightly so that they get paid more. Banking industry is all about trust and reputation. One of the reasons why people are upset today is because the trust that people had on the banking system & reputable financial institutions is now broken. Lot of people lost their lifetime savings, 401k's and big portion of their hard earned...

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Auto Meltdown - End of an era (Part II)

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:03:00 +0000

In my previous post I covered details on the current state of auto industry and the reasons that led us into this bubble. In this post I will be focusing specifically on US auto industry and how it got into the current mess. The top 3 American auto companies(GM, Ford, Chrysler) are teetering on the brink and are currently going through the worst crisis of their lifetime. They have been piling up huge losses, losing market share to Japanese, Korean and German auto majors, their shares have been battered and are trading at 50-70yr lows and are almost on the verge of collapse due to a steep drop in sales. Feb '09 was the one of their worst months in several decades and most of them saw a big drop in demand - GM's YoY sales reduced by 53%, Ford reduced by 48% and Chrysler by 44%. For Q4 2008 GM alone lost around $30 billion and Ford lost around $5.9 billion. All the top 3 companies are running low on cash reserves, their corporate rating has suffered making it both expensive and tough to...

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Sylvia Earle: Here's how to protect the blue heart of the planet

shogun1947@gmail.com (Nandu) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:02:00 +0000

Check out this excellent presentation by Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle. As part of this session she shares astonishing images of the ocean and shocking stats about its rapid decline -- as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet. As she rightly points out, environment destruction is visible at land and people are beginning to take note of it and start acting on it. In the oceans the destruction is not visible to the eye however the impact is equally bad if not worse. Protecting oceans is very critical for survival of earth and to prevent mass extinctions and climatic changes. She calls for creation of protected marine areas across the globe to help sustain and protect the ocean life. Excellent one!

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