Business schools and boredom

It occurred to me right after I hit 'Publish' on the last post that there could be a corollary of the law of quantum stress. Boredom is also likely governed by the same law.

People who have been through B School can often be seen to be rather bored. Bored at their jobs in particular. Eavesdrop on any conversation at a gathering of B-School classmates and given enough time, you are sure to see the conversation veer to, "We need to do something 'cool' or something different. We need to head out there as entrepreneurs."

If the cause for this boredom among MBAs could be narrowed down to one single factor, I would like to bet that it is the number of PowerPoint presentations that person has to make.

Come to think about it, it could be a close draw between the number of PowerPoint presentations the person has to make and the number of meetings or conference calls the person has to attend.

How many times have you been on a conference call where you mind zoned out and you heard the dreaded, "What do you think, <your name here>?" You know what we all do when that happens.
We swallow that drink we have been swirling in our mouth and punch the un-mute button on our phone and say through muscle memory, even without thinking, "Sorry, I couldn't hear that too well. Could you repeat that last part?" Who do we think we are fooling? It is only because we are all guilty of the same behaviour ourselves that we conspire to not hold this lack of attention against anyone else.

If mentors of MBA younglings could shield them from meetings and from remaking decks, joy at work could be much higher and attrition much lower.

Business School and the Army

They say that life in the army is made up of long periods of boredom punctuated by short periods of terror.

I have been thinking about this and I daresay it could possibly hold true for a number of professions; like say for pilots or long haul truckers, or merchant seamen. I also realized that the converse is true for the first year at Business School for most of the students. A continuous state of panic followed by short periods of boredom during the term breaks.

Sure, there are a few from the IITs who seem to think the pace is too slow and they are not really getting their money's worth. But for the most part, for most of the student body, the grueling schedule with 200 page readings every day and grilling in the classroom by the professor, plus the maddening surprises quizzes and the dismay at having your grade put up on the public notice board, adds to a fair bit of stress.

I hope there is a law of quantum stress that postulates that the total quantum of stress to be endured in one's lifetime is a pre-ordained quantity. Might explain why some people are able to lead a life of equanimity after B School.

Recruitment algorithms for Investment banks - a rejoinder

I was patting myself on the back for my post on recruitment algorithms for investment banks when I chanced upon a quote by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - author of 'Fooled by Randomness' and 'Black Swan'.

"The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind's flaws, biases, contradictions and irrationality, without exploiting them for fun or profit."

Ouch.

Middle Class Andhshraddha

On my drive home yesterday I was switching radio channels when I chanced upon a lecture by the late Narendra Dabholkar on FM 107.4 - the Pune University Radio station.

He was speaking about what causes the educated middle classes to succumb to Andh-shraddha; which literally translates to blind-faith, but speaks more to the gullibility that leads to exploitation by god-men.

Two things apparently. The first is the uncertainty that comes with life. Will my job survive the current round of layoffs in the company? Will my parent's health recover? Or deteriorate further?

It is during these emotionally turbulent times, that god-men come forward and provide that emotional anchor that humans so need. God-men fulfill the human need for someone to tell them that the future will be better than the past; for a price of course.

The other thing Mr. Dabholkar mentioned is unfulfilled desires. All around us are flashed images of the good life that not all can afford; expensive watches, fancy cars, trips to exotic locations; not only in advertising, but also in stories of success projected in the Sunday glossies and TV serials and in movies. Pretty soon, people start to aspire to things they cannot quite afford right now. Some work harder to improve their lot in life. Others seek blessings.

Mr. Dabholkar mentioned that he has been working for decades trying to expose phonies with no luck.

Perhaps there is only so much logic can do when faced with insecurity.

Our social lives

It is no surprise that our parents led a life with more personal contact; they visited friends and family more often. It was not uncommon for guest to drop in unannounced when I was young.

These days, ubiquity of the phone has made it somewhat mandatory to call before we show up someplace. Coupled with busier lives, caused in turn by longer working hours and longer commutes, the result is fewer social meetings. We find it easier to coordinate with work colleagues and as a result there is a bigger overlap between our work life and social life.

Yesterday, I noticed a new deterrent to a face to face meeting with a friend. I left office a little early yesterday and as I was driving past a certain landmark, I realized that a friends office was only a short detour away. I hadn't met this friend in many months and he has always been welcoming whenever I visit and we have often chatted over a cuppa at his office.

Yesterday, however, I realized that parking near his office has been getting increasingly difficult. I deferred visiting him as I was not looking forward to looking for a parking slot.

We now have to add parking woes to the ever growing list of reasons responsible for reducing our social connect with people outside our office.

Work Paradox

Remember the wardrobe paradox?
'Nothing to wear and not enough closet space.'

I realized today that there is a work paradox that is somewhat akin to that one.
'Most people hate their jobs, but are also miserable doing nothing.'

ARNA

In 1980, Alfa Romeo of Italy and Nissan Motor Company of Japan formed a Joint Venture called Alfa Romeo Nissan Autoveicoli S.p.A. The new company built a factory near Naples and started to produce a car in 1983 named, rather unimaginatively, the ARNA.

Ostensibly, this could have been the killer app of the day; a car with Japanese reliability and Italian flair and style. I am not quite sure how much sake and vino was involved, but the JV saw fit to build a car with Japanese boxy looks and Italian reliability. According to the wiki article, "The ARNA featured tempestuous mechanicals and indifferent build quality courtesy of Alfa Romeo, married to a Nissan body of questionable build and frumpy styling, with insipid handling common to Japanese cars of the time." The writing was on the wall. The ARNA lived a short ignominious life, and was axed in 1986, unloved and unmissed.

I attended a seminar by Chris Bangle, the erstwhile design chief of BMW, a few years ago and he was speaking of how gorgeous Italian cars tend to be. "There was often a trade-off however," Chris Bangle told us. "You see, the Italians design with a flair only the Italians have. And they don't let engineering get in the way."

I thought that was funny at the time, but given the experience I have been having with a German car, I am beginning to believe this might be true of all European automobiles.

Whatsapp blindness

A friend called me some time ago to wish me happy birthday. Since I have not received birthday wishes from this person in many years, I asked how she remembered this year. She said a number of my classmates from B School were wishing me on the WhatsApp group.

This is where things get interesting. You see, I am not on WhatsApp. Someone started the chain by wishing me and everyone else replied without checking if the intended recipient is on the list.

I presume there are about 50+ people out there who truly believe that they have wished me on my birthday.

Epiphany for the day: When you wish to connect with someone, pick up the phone. Do not send them a message. Messages are sent by banks, insurance companies and all sorts of retailers you shop at, including but not restricted to jewelers, grocery stores, apparel stores, pizza outlets, airlines, hotels and a few other I am sure I am missing here. 

Friends pick up the phone and chat.

Respect for other people's work

We had our sofa reupholstered some time ago and on the day it was delivered back to our home, we noticed that the fabric on one of the units had been soiled in transit. Admittedly, and in hindsight, it was perhaps not wise to endeavour on this re-upholstering enterprise during the monsoon, given than most intra-city transport in our country happens on 3 wheelers without any modicum of a sealed cabin. The upholsterer had been careful to wrap each unit in cling wrap to protect it from the elements. However, the sheet of plywood in the loading bay of the 3 wheeler was rough with use and, to make matters worse, not exactly clean.

As the vehicle jostled over our roads, the cling wrap on the surface placed against the plywood rubbed against it and ripped. The dirt on the plywood then proceeded to attack the exposed fabric, until, by the time it was delivered, it was beyond hope.

As we unloaded the item, the upholsterer who had arrived on a motorcycle saw the mess and let loose at the 3-wheeler driver. The driver shrugged and told him that the loading was done by the upholsterer's men. "My job was just to drive it here." The upholsterer then called his shop and there was much discussion about why a sheet of foam had not been placed below the sofa.

He tried to ask me for a piece of cloth to try and clean the mess. He looked at my face and thought better of it, loaded the item back on the 3 wheeler and promised to return it with the fabric changed.

This incident is not abnormal in our country. I know of a friend who moved into a new home and had a carpenter drill into his bathroom walls to install a shelf, only to drill into a water pipe, with the result that the tiles had to be torn down, a new pipe installed and new tiles required.

I have not seen this happen in Singapore or in the US and I imagine it does not happen in Japan or in Germany. What is it about India that such sloppiness is the norm?

It all boils down to one thing. A lack of respect for other people's effort.

Recalibrating indices of success

I was speaking with a friend a few days ago about how some people act like they are on a mission to achieve something while others act like they have arrived.

There might appear to be something admirable about people who appear to have arrived, but once in a while, we meet someone whose mannerisms leave a lot to be desired, yet they carry themselves with a swagger that reminds one of a buffoon rather than anything else.

My friend made a comment that is food for thought. 'We need to recalibrate our indices of success as we progress through life, from school to college to B-School. Or as we move from a small village to a town to a city to the world stage.

Just as the antics of a child can be cute at pre-school but cause for much eye-rolling in college, behaviour that might have been admirable in a small town might fall short of acceptable behaviour on the world stage.

Recruiment Algorithm for Investment Banks

I was at my B-School a couple of days ago and chatting with students and placement committee members. The conversation veered to what Investment Banks look for in their interview process.

I remember from chatting with my classmates from 16 years ago, that the IB interviews comprised of quantitative problems involving probability. I also remember speaking with some of these classmates after they joined the I Banks that their job does not really involve all that quant, except a couple who did bond pricing for a living.

I would like to propose a new recruitment for the investment banks. Start the recruitment process with a screening of the documentary 'Inside Job' by Charles Ferguson as the very first step. During the interview ask them what they thought.

Candidates who are shocked by the unfairness of it all are not cut out for I Banking. Candidates with a twinkle in their eye and those wondering, 'You mean I can make all this money at my clients' expense without any chance of being prosecuted? This is awesome. How could I get a piece of this action?" Those are the ones you are looking for.

For any I Bankers reading this, you can contact me directly for a more detailed process based on this algo.

Alma Mater

I have been traveling again; this time on a short visit to my Alma Mater, a Well Known Institute of Management in Western India, WIMWI for short.

It was an invigorating two days, meeting with old friends and new and to meet with a few of our professors. A few of us from the class of 1999 had descended on campus to speak with the current students. One of classmates had organized an amazing Q&A format that kept the discussion alive and the audience engaged. Kudos DJ. I am looking forward to the next thing you setup for us at WIMWI.

I am humbled by the diversity of accomplishments of the people in the class of 1999. It has been an honour to have worked with these folks in those trying times.

I realized over these last two days that it is a very human need to want to belong to something. In the words of Peter Robinson, author of Snapshots from Hell, one always sees one's own school through a golden haze. Well said.

Rationalizing BS

I was watching Man of Steel on TV yesterday; you know the latest Superman movie where General Zod brings the 'World Machine' to Earth and begins converting Earth into a Krypton like planet.

I was okay with this; after all, I had agreed to surrender rationality to watch science fiction or fantasy for a couple of hours. It started to unravel for me when the scientist pretended to understand what the machine was doing and more when someone suggested that they could change the machine back into the Phantom Drive to send the bad guys back to the Phantom Zone.

Right, you figured out an alien technology you had never seen before and had the engineering talent to make it do something else just by smashing one machine into another. Do what you will but spare me the BS about how it works; I am only here to watch the pyrotechnics.

I realized that very often, MBAs lose credibility with folks who do real work, pretty much by traveling down this same path. It is refreshing to meet people who say that they don't know something, but MBAs such people are not. We learn early on in B School that the name of the game is to use big words like paradigm shift whether they are relevant to the problem at hand or not. Pretty soon, we start to drink our own Kool Aid and then start to believe the BS we dish out.

Here's my hypothesis for the day: When you take a good engineer and put him through B School, all that happens is that you lose a good engineer.

Cosmo Kramer

I was watching a couple of episodes of Seinfeld yesterday and it struck me how irreverent and irresponsible Kramer can be. He walks into Seinfeld's home, raids his refrigerator, does not show any gratitude, and worse, always puts Jerry into a spot by making him do something questionable if not outright illegal and then walks away when the situation blows up in Jerry's face.

What I found even more confounding was Jerry's tolerance for all the BS that Cosmo puts him through. Not for long though. I realized that most of us have this one person in our lives that we are willing to accord a lot more latitude to and put up with far more nonsense from than we would generally do. Sometimes, these people are a source of joy and sometimes they are the cause of gut wrenching stress.

Who is the Cosmo Kramer in your life?

Money Lending

I recently met an old friend who used to run a successful business many years ago. About fifteen years ago, finding himself with more money than he could employ in his own business, he started lending it to other businessmen at commercial rates. About ten years ago he was making far more money from the money lending business than from his original activities, and naturally he moved completely to money lending. Then the financial crisis happened and it served him a double whammy. A number of his debtors defaulted and more important, there was a dearth of credible borrowers.

Over the last few years, interest rates in India have been dropping and the days of money lenders charging 2% per month are gone for good. Money lending might not be the best business to be in anymore.

But here's the thing. Moving from value-generating activities to rent-seeking activities is a one-way street. More like a non-return-valve. Once we get used to something for nothing, no other activity seems to be worth the effort.

With the bankruptcy filing of General Motors, we know what happens to union leaders who see their job as extracting more benefits from management without providing any incremental value. Look up UAW Jobs Bank to find out more.

I wonder what employees of Private Equity Firms do after PE opportunities dry up.

The art of paying a compliment

The art of paying a compliment is one of the most under-rated of skills. It needs to be covered in school or at least in B-schools. As Indians, we are barely able to pay a compliment to someone we are very familiar with. We struggle to interact with strangers, much less say something nice to them. When we do attempt to say something nice, it often comes out dorky, or worse, as flattery.

We try and dilute this effect by trying to compliment not the person but something they own or something they have. At least this cannot be misconstrued as personal flattery, we reason.

Here is a simple algorithm that works for me. If you wish to state a fact, the compliment works. When your objective is to pay someone a compliment, it often comes out contrived.

The best way to compliment someone, I have learned, is to come out and state the truth. If someone is well dressed on a certain day, tell them.

And please do not emphasize the word 'today' when you tell them they look good.

This education business - Part 2

I have been thinking some more about why the presence of the feedback loop is so diminutive. Very often, students are rapped on the knuckles for trying to give critical feedback. Worse, the response is more along the lines of, 'Get your house in order before you point fingers at me'. They soon learn to shut up.

Even in situations when the feedback could be positive, students are reticent to come out and say it, because, particularly in India and specifically in school, we have never been taught to pay a compliment. We have never been shown how it can be done well. It is for most of us therefore an awkward exercise. We carry this limitation with us to work and into our socially inept adult lives. It is this inability to pay someone a compliment graciously that makes most people find themselves tongue-tied when trying to approach someone they are attracted to.

We are not very good at receiving compliments either. Often, we find we don't know what to say when someone pays us a compliment.

I have come to believe that the one thing that a teacher can do to enable this crippled feedback loop, is to work on making sessions fun and engaging.

True engagement is feedback in itself; as is the lack thereof.

This education business

A number of people from my graduating class from B-School, myself included, are either considering doing something in the education space or have already dabbled in it - whether for commercial interest or for gratification.

The cost of real estate in India, whether you buy or lease, is a major hurdle to overcome when trying to go about the education business commercially.

The lack of an effective and meaningful feedback loop works against gratification. Speaking with a friend helped me gain clarity on why this can be disenchanting. There are three things at play.

First, the number of lives you can change is going to be a small percentage of the people you interact with. Not every child in your class is going to be transformed. a number of them have bigger issues to address; and a number of them simply do not care.

Second, the results of your work are not readily visible. Sometimes it can be decades before you can see the impact of your effort.

Third, you might never get to witness the impact. Very few of your students will find the opportunity or the willingness to come back to you to tell you that you made a difference.

Most of the time, you can only hope that your effort was not meaningless.

Tool Belts

We had a couple of plumbers visit us a few days ago to provide a quote for some work in the bathroom. One of them showed up with his tool-kit and provided not just a quote but also a time estimate with start time and end time. Also told us how long he would have to switch off the water to the house for him to get the job done. The other guy, well, just showed up. Guess who got the job.

Epiphany for the day - A tool-belt is more than just a convenient way for you to carry your tools of the trade. Wearing a tool-belt signifies a desire to get the job done. A person wearing a tool belt wears a can-do attitude. Perhaps more important, this person is seen as wearing a can-do attitude.

August Short

Moral Policing is just a manifestation of lesser males trying to play Alpha because they cannot excel at the things that matter.

FSTR

Recently read FSTR by James Gleick. An amazing account of how we are speeding up our lives, trying to do more every day and end up not having the time for basic human needs like social contact or even the time to eat without trying to multi-task while we eat.

He starts with an interesting thought; that the need for speed is a malady, a contagious malady, and the transmission vector is the door-close button in elevators.

These days I think twice before hitting the door close button. Do I really need to save those 3 seconds? Will I catch the contagion if I do?

Like abstinence, impatience is its own punishment.

The Indian equivalent of Swiss Banks

Gold in India, after import restrictions were dropped post liberalization in 1991, has started to witness price fluctuation in sync with world prices. No so for real estate. Real estate prices in India appear to elude price corrections. Except for  Mumbai and Delhi which saw a price correction right after the 2008 financial crisis, land prices in the rest of the country seem to be immune to any movement in the economy. The fact that 1 billion people wish to own a piece of land or apartment complex that they can call their own can only explain a small part of this phenomenon. The seemingly infinite demand theory falls flat when one reads about the half a million apartments that remain unsold in the top 10 cities in the country. By some reports, the number is closer to two million.

Clearly, there is tremendous holding power amongst the builders and developers who can afford to sit on unsold inventory without budging on prices. This can only happen when the investors do not expect an ROI on their investment. The truth might be a more extreme case of this ROI-no-object situation.

I suspect, as do you I am sure, that corrupt elements consider real estate a safe haven for parking. Where things get interesting is that unlike most investors, the corrupt are not too worried about a return on their investment. The distinction between investing and parking is very clear in their minds. I suspect that they would like an avenue where they would be able to access a good chunk of their ill-gotten booty at short call.

Imagine now a scenario where Extremely High Net Worth individuals are willing to park their money for zero returns. In fact, they might be happy with paying a small fee for the service of parking their money and delivering it back to them on need, say when elections are announced. This might go some way to explaining the seemingly limitless financial patience of those who develop or invest in real estate.

The new Finance Minister has shown that he understands this clearly, for he has mentioned that going after real estate and private educational institutions is likely to unearth a lot of this ill-gotten booty.

What's taking him so long?

Bandwidth

I have been noticing that the gmail page has been taking longer and longer to load on my pc and on my phone. I did a factory reset on my phone and cleaned out my pc; no difference. Checked if my broadband connection has slowed down; speedtest.org shows I am getting reasonable speeds.

Yesterday, in desperation, I clicked on the link for slow connections and it loaded instantly. Which leads me to believe that gmail sends down a ton of other data down with my message list that I do not really use. I guess Google presumes the world is on Google-Fibre speeds.

As I started to dig deeper, I noticed a lot of sites appear to make ambitious presumptions about available bandwidth in planning their content and layout. It also occurred to me that in our offices we are getting used to far higher speeds on our dedicated IP leased lines. This spoils us and we start to get dissatisfied with the speed at home.

In the mid-90s, browsers were geared to work with dial-up modems and even allowed you to not load images - so that you could get the text down real quick and that was a default setting for many of us back then. We clicked on the image icon if we wanted to see the image. I checked this morning and the setting is still available on my phone. It is also available on chrome.

Since we are not on 56.6 kbps dial-up modems, browsing without images might be a bit draconian, but I do wish more websites would offer the gmail feature of 'click here for slow connections' and bring down text and images but no videos and flash content unless I choose to. Until then, I have found a work around. I have installed an older version of adobe flash. My browser now believes it is unsafe to display flash and video over this older version and asks for permission before it displays.

I can now visit NDTV.com without having to hear all the noisy videos playing while I am trying to scan the headlines.

While we wait for fibre-optic last mile connectivity, we might want to think about how much content we really need or even want streaming down our pipes.

Nauru

I chanced upon two articles about the pacific island nation of Nauru on www.economist.com.

The nation's primary source of earnings came from exports of phosphates which are used in the manufacture of fertilizers. At one point in time in the late 20th century, Nauru was one of the richest nations on earth. Its 8000 citizens did not need to work as the government used the earnings from phosphates on largesse for its citizens and more importantly its members.

Nauru's investments at one time exceeded US$ 1 Billion when the going was good. But just as Oil exporting nations have neglected to develop their populations and their economies, Nauru relied way too much on phosphate dollars.

As such governments are wont to do, the Nauru government failed to recognize that its financial situation was in dire straits as the price of phosphates nose dived. Add to this a spate of bad investments including funding Broadway shows and aspiring artists, and the country is now bankrupt.



They have been coming up with interesting revenue streams to fund the obesity inducing lifestyles of its citizens. Nauru has collected money first from Taiwan and then from PRC for its vote at the UN on a number of issues. Later, it relaxed rules on banking, so you could set up your own bank on Nauru island for a fee of USD 25000. It is said that the Russian Mafia laundered about $70 Billion through Nauru banks before banks from western nations refused to transact with Nauru institutions.

Today, Nauru has an even more interesting model. They will agree to hold Australia's boat people for a fee until Australia decides if they are refugees admissible into Oz.

For all the blame we can lay at the feet of India's socialist governments in the early days after independence, we have to grant that they did a reasonable job of trying to get this country to stand on its own feet. If Nauru is not sufficient example of what could go wrong, we only need to cast a glance towards Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe, Yemen and even our neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Platform tickets can be fun

So platform tickets are anachronistic. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with them.

The last time I bought a platform ticket was at Pune railway station when I was there to see off a cousin heading to IIT Madras. I remember the ticket cost Rs 1.50 at the time. I handed a 2 Rupee note to the guy behind the counter but he did not have change at the time. We agreed that I would collect my change on my way out. We saw my cousin off and after the Chennai Express departed, we relatives trooped out of the station.

I had to ferry my aunt on my way home and I suggested she wait in the car while I collected my 50 paise from the platform ticket window.

"What 50 paise?" she asked.

The little devil on my right shoulder snapped to attention, shaking off his idle reverie.
"Didn't you know that you can return the platform ticket after use and get 50 paise back?"

"Nonsense."

"Come with me and I'll show you."

We walked up to the ticket window where I handed the guy my platform ticket. He looked at me and with a nod of recognition handed me a 50 p coin. I pocketed it, smiled at my aunt and we walked back to the car. It was a quiet ride back home as she was probably adding up all the money she had foregone.

A couple of months later I got back home to see my aunt speaking with my dad.

"What's this about a 50p refund on platform tickets?" my dad asked me.

I managed to keep a baffled expression.

My aunt was angry. And indignant. "I tried to collect my 50p and the guy at the window had no clue what I was talking about. And it was the same guy you collected the money from. I tried reminding him of our instance and he still refused to give me the 50p. Then the people behind me in the queue tried to explain to me that it doesn't work that way. I have never felt so stupid in my life."

Little devil :1  Little angel: 0

Platform tickets

Some years ago I ran into an Indian anachronism at Pune railway station. Our extended family was there to drop off a cousin who was going to IIT Madras. Before I could enter the railway station, I had to buy a platform ticket.

I realize that the platform ticket is not a revenue stream but a mechanism to trap ticket-less travel. I can almost imagine a day back in the 1950s where the ticket collector stopped a person to check his ticket and he claimed to be a local who was here to pick up a relative who didn't show. I can also imagine the cogs turning inside the intelligent brain of a Mr. Iyer in the Administrative services who came up with this, 'So you are here to pick someone up you say. Show me proof.'

Nowhere else in the world, okay I have not been to Pakistan and Bangladesh and Nigeria, do we have to buy platform tickets to get onto the railway station. Tickets are checked on the train. But trains in India are crowded you say. It may not be possible to check everyone's ticket on the train. Hence the second check when you try to exit the station. Fair enough; but do you see the malaise this breeds and how it sets precedence for ridiculous procedures elsewhere. Indian airports had platform tickets too until the fear of terrorism gave cause to the government in its infinite wisdom to disallow all but holders of a valid ticket from entering the airports. Then things got really weird. With e-tickets, I am sure someone figured out that it is easy to edit your ticket and to print a copy for a friend who might want to see you off at the airport. This second ticket does not need to get you onto the aircraft, just onto the concourse. The government doesn't like you out-thinking them. So we have a new procedure. Once you enter the airport - you cannot leave unless escorted by an airline staff member who has to vouch for the fact that they could not let you board the plane.

Reminds me also of the guy who checks that your passport has been stamped with the correct arrival date by the immigration staffer, and that other guy who stands at the exit beyond customs and collects the little form you filled out on the plane. And the guy who designed that form, and the guy at the printing machine that prints them, and the courier who delivers those forms to the airlines. Oh and the two CISF guys who unlock the glass door to the aerobridge when the airline staff wants to begin boarding the aircraft, and the locksmith who comes running when the CISF staff cannot on some occasions unlock said door.

Aren't you happy that your tax rupees are hard at work, with all these employment opportunities being created.

What worries you

It occurred to me on the drive home from work yesterday that different things occupy our minds at different stages in life. The surprising part is that these things are consistent across different people from different socio-economic strata.

In school - we are worried about not getting punished by the teacher - worried about being late or not having done our homework. The teachers pets are worried about looking good all the time.

Then we worry about getting admitted to a respectable college. Then we worry about getting a job. Then we worry about doing well on the job and making a promotion. Next in line is making enough money to be able to buy a house and a car. Can we afford the EMIs?

After we get married it is - Should I save money now or should I travel to Europe before we have the kids. Can we afford to have kids and give them the life they deserve - or should we wait a couple more years.

Then in the parenting years, it a whole new set of worries. Are my kids doing well at school? Are they turning out okay? Are they getting into bad company? Are their friends decent fellows?

These days we have a few new demons to worry about - are they safe on the school bus? Are they safe at the beach? Are they safe when they go trekking?

Then they get into college and we have whole new set of worries. Who are they dating? Will I approve of the person they are dating? When do I get to meet this guy or gal?

Then it is - Will they get a good job? Will they be happy? And the cycle repeats.

It is amazing that among the educated middle class, this pattern of worrying is the same across countries and generations.

Time to figure out which of these worries are ghosts and how to live our life differently.

More than the sum of its parts

I was staying at a hotel in Singapore recently where the housekeeping service was done by a team of two members. I noticed that they got the work done in less than half the time it would have taken one person. As an example, consider the process for changing the bedsheet. One person would have had to walk to both sides of the bed and then tuck in the sheet between the mattress and the box-spring. With two people doing it, they stood on both sides of the bed and did the job in one smooth motion - no walking back and forth. Similarly with clearing the waste bins. One held the large garbage bag while the other emptied the baskets into it.

It was quite amazing to watch. Clearly an example of the result being more than the sum of its parts.

Kalash and world peace

The Wikipedia article on the AK 47 (Automat Kalashnikov 47) tells us that over 100 million of the assault rifle and its derivatives have been manufactured since 1947. That is one for every 70 people in the world.

Look around you and be thankful that your office and your city is not representative of this average. While we are at it, let us strike off all the places where the AK47 is not commonly found outside of use in the armed forces; that would be China, India, Japan, the United States, Western Europe, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Together, these places add up to a population of about 3.5 Billion.

In the remaining parts of the world, i.e. Africa, Central Asia, Middle East and South America, there is an AK 47 for every 35 persons alive. Given that law and order in these parts of the world is not exactly stringently enforced, these guns are fired at an alarmingly frequency. We have the results for all to see in the news; wars in Central Asia and in the Middle East, and the exploits of warlords in Africa who hold entire populations to ransom. Every year, more than 250,000 people lose their lives to the AK. That is more people killed every year than the total number who lost their lives to atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or ever.

It makes one wonder where so many of these weapons were made and how is it that they were freely sold to anyone with a few hundred dollars. Being a product of the Soviet Union, the AK is not protected by patents and intellectual property rights. According to this article on quora.com, the assault rifle is made in a ridiculously large number of countries including Poland starting in 1957, followed by Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, China, East Germany, Egypt, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Romania, Yugoslavia and recently the United States.

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it is said that the CIA funded purchase of large numbers of AK47s to supply to the Afghan resistance. It appears that they have been proliferating in the field ever since. In Africa in particular there appears to be a huge secondary market for these weapons. When skirmishes end in one part of the continent they begin in another and people who are done with their fight are willing to sell them on to others in need. With used examples changing hands for as little as US$30 according to the Wiki article, and the weapon needing almost no training at all, its use is only growing in popularity.

No matter how many pageant queens are wishing and praying for world peace, I wouldn't hold my breath. World peace is going to be a long time coming.

Efficient markets paradox

Wall street appears to make money by exploiting inefficiencies in the markets or rather,
inefficiencies in the flow of information from those who guard it to those who need it to invest wisely; ironically while spewing platitudes about efficient markets.

Efficient Markets

"Markets look a lot more efficient from the banks of the Charles than from the banks of the Hudson."

~ Fisher Black (of Black-Scholes fame after he moved from MIT to Goldman Sachs)

Thank you Sw@z for posting this as a comment on a recent post.