Non-Violence – The Power of Iteration
My most recent discovery has been the power of non-violence and iteration. After reading a number of books on Gandhi and his general philosophy, I have come to accept non-violent resistance as the most powerful political force available. Ultimately, it is not so much about changing others, but changing oneself and letting that affect the behaviour of others.
Everything boils down to action-reaction, where you control the action, you can control the reaction. By iterating rapidly over many actions, you can identify the best and most effective way to obtain the change you seek. Gandhi exemplified this strategy by repeatedly defying unfair laws, inciting a disproportionate reaction from the government, which further highlighted the injustice of the law. If the reaction did not meet his expectations, he would simply try something different. This strategy of continuously tweaking your approach strikes me as a fundamental principle of everything, from business to science to politics. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate.
Published on March 21, 2009Managing Ideas
One of the biggest challenges is prioritizing ideas. This applies to both business and life. Personally, I never buy anything on impulse. If I see something that appeals to me, I will make a mental note of it. If I still want it in a couple months, then I’ll buy it. The vast majority of things, I forget. Eventually, you get fewer and fewer purchase desires.
At NIMONIK, we apply this to content and technology features. When a feature is originally proposed or thought up, we let it sit for a while. If it is still an appealing idea after a month or two, then we put it on the priority list. We then watch other ideas to see if the original idea should stay on the priority list, if not we move it to a backlog list. That backlog list usually grows and grows as we archive ideas. Eventually, the backlog gets trashed.
Published on January 10, 2009Think different and listen to no one
Found this letter, amazing.
ome time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.I read the examination question:
“SHOW HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THE HEIGHT OF A TALL BUILDING WITH THE AID OF A BAROMETER.”
The student had answered, “Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building.” The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try. I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said he had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, he dashed off his answer which read:
“Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula x=0.5*a*t^^2, calculate the height of the building.”
At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. While leaving my colleague’s office, I recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they were. “Well,” said the student, “there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building,and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building.” “Fine,” I said, “and others?” “Yes,” said the student, “there is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units.” “A very direct method, of course.”
If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building,in principle, can be calculated.” “On this same tact, you could take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession”. “Finally,” he concluded, “there are many other ways of solving the problem. Probably the best,” he said, “is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent’s door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: “Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer.” At this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.
My Favourite TED Talks
I am a TED Talk crack-addict and have watched every single one. Below is a list of Ted Talks, my top five which blew me away, followed by some other favorites. Enjoy!
Top 5:
Zander on music
Hans Rosling on World Development
Bolte on Strokes
Lessing on Creative Commons
DNA Folding
Some other favourites (full list here):
Putting photos together – magically
Design of the Universe
Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote
John Francis – Planet Walker
Theory of everything
Evil
Liberal vs Conservative Brains
How Kids Learn
Why I Support the Extremists.
Today is Blog Action Day, a day when a central group tries to get tens of thousands of blogs to discuss poverty issues. I volunteered, so here is my topic: Why we must support extremists.