[#Social] A 7 Year Old Kid Writes to Google CEO

You might have come across this so called 'news' item which is going viral on the internet. It is a letter from a 7 year old kid to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Here is a URL: http://www.thatscoop.com/article/ashwiniarunkumar/7-year-old-application-to-google

Reading the kid's letter I can't stop from observing how important "age" is for a child. A child tells one's age with such a pride as if it is an achievement! Then in the mid years we start looking at age as a thing to hide, perhaps embarrassed at it while always associating material success along with age. Only in the later part of life, perhaps we again start quoting our age, as once again age becomes a matter of our pride since it shows our accomplishment in the form of having led a life which truly is an achievement in itself. Our attempts to measure its worth by counting accomplishments is unnecessary and counter productive. 

Btw, Sundar's reply was as follows:

Sundar's reply to the kid was nice, though I would have preferred a colorful greeting card saying "thanks"; the kid would have loved it...

- Rahul Tiwary

Bing Homepage: Better than Google!

Every time search engine Google.com does something special with its main search page graphics, it becomes news. Newspapers bring out news items telling users about it (perhaps they believe their readers do not use google and hence need to be informed of this important update :), people discuss it on social networking sites and it is also a popular talk when friends meet over lunch or tea. Google has such a huge brand recall value that all other search engines get eclipsed. Have you checked out Bing.com?

Bing is the web search engine from Microsoft. When it was inaugurated, it came out with many great features which Google also copied and made use of. I especially noted features of scroll in image search and snapshot views at the right hand bar, which were not present in Google earlier but they introduced it later on. It still has many features unique and better than google. But I wanted to discuss the home page and graphics here.

Bing changes its background image daily. And what a fabulous pictures are those! Just keep reaching bing.com daily, or make it your homepage so that when you open your browser bing opens, and I am sure you will be mesmerized by the wonderful collection of images it brings… The background images also mention information about the things shown in the image.

Why I am prompted to blog about it is because today I noted a moving visual in its background image! It shows a dog resting on the ground, but it opens its eyes after sometime and then casually shuts them back! It is so cute and wonderful… 

It has its eyes closed:

Now it opens its eyes slightly:

Even the grass moves a little. 

It is possible to view the image on full page and also download it.

Do give it a try and explore more! I am sure you will like it!

Note: Views are personal and do not represent views of any organization associated with the author. [Detailed disclaimer]

The Role of Social Networking Sites in our Life

Now a day that I am getting busier than ever, I am getting less time for doing two things in particular: spend time on social networking sites, and to read articles which provide me good food-for-thoughts. I am still spending quality time with my near and dear ones, and I do read books regularly; and this brings the equation to some interesting inferences. Is life better with or without social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, or Googleplus? I happened to read two very enticing articles today; one is on the extreme and the other is rather a sane voice:

The first news says, “Internet hacktivist group Anonymous has urged to destroy Facebook on 5th of November”. I thought it would be interesting to read their allegations hence I read through the buzz, and here is something which was agreeable to some extent for most users (IMO): 

“Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.”

“It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent.”

“Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.”

“Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook. Engaged.”

Read complete piece: http://www.buzzom.com/2011/08/anonymous-urges-to-destroy-facebook-on-november-5/

Not that I support hacking as a means to achieve some goal, but I do understand their concerns about lack of privacy and denial of choice and consent. The concern is real.

On the other hand, I found a very interesting article on the HBR Blog Network. Whitney Johnson uses most of the social networking sites and she sees the whole thing in a very different perspective:

“According to the jobs-to-be-done framework, whenever we buy something, we are hiring the product or service to do a "job," the job being a problem we want to solve or a way to advance toward a better self. With few exceptions, every job that people want done has emotional, social and functional elements. Let's start with what I presently hire social media to do:

1. Help me find my personal voice and get published.

2. Help me be found professionally.

3. Help me stay in touch with people I like, even though our lives don't currently intersect.

4. Help me expand my network.”

“While technology can hinder progress by making us hyper-connected, distracting us from those we love, and helping us avoid our to-do list, the important job of technology in general, and social media in particular, is to facilitate human connection, to expand our social circles and strengthen our in real life relationships. That's true progress — a job we all want done.”

Read complete piece here: http://blogs.hbr.org/johnson/2011/08/what-job-does-social-media-do.html

While this second article puts up facts and features in supporting the positive role of social (or socio-professional) networking sites, I wonder why we can’t have best of both worlds. Why can’t we do all good things with the social-networking sites, and yet don’t face risks of lack of privacy which websites like Facebook have inherent in them?

I think ideally the power should be in the hands of the users; sites like Facebook should provide us with features that we demand. But in reality I feel the power is still in the hands of the websites and users follow what is offered to them. This is why I feel the arrival of Googleplus (or Google+) is a good sign in my opinion. Given a serious competition, the s/n sites like FB will not have to look at what users really want (or fear), rather than throwing features and apps at the ever-amazed (or addicted) audiences. I believe the competition amongst social-networking sites will try to bring us to a situation where the users’ fears and demands would be genuinely addressed. And then, there won’t be any need for a hacker group to claim righteous-hacking of websites like Facebook, to teach them a lesson.

© Rahul

Open letter to Barack Obama

18 June 2009
Mumbai

Dear Mr. Obama,

Past is always so easy to understand. It’s only the present that we don’t get hold of, in order to shape up our future. Still, many of us are obsessed with the future. You would definitely be one of these – after all, future was all that you promised in your election campaigns in order to buy the present! But I see a big problem in the way you are going about it, and hence this letter.

The Great American Blackmailers

Think of the way your predecessor George W. Bush managed to get his second term in the office. It’s an easy guess! Yes, it was nothing but blackmailing… Blackmailing the Americans that if they didn’t support him, those evil leaders with weapons of mass destruction would dig their graves, oppps, mass graves… If they didn’t support him, the Afghans would keep bringing down all the Twin Towers, and each Iraqi boy, a born Saddam, will come back to hit at the US… So the scared (and fooled) Americans put their faith behind him, and enjoyed all his fairy-tales with a coke and a ham burger. And they gave him enough time on the chair to make himself an unforgettable world leader. What followed is history… Can he be called a benchmark on blackmailing? Not yet; he has got a serious contender! Who better than yourself Mr. President?

Your message to America

Last week, you addressed a town hall speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You delivered a message to your countrymen. I will present the sequence in which you said things, to bring better clarity. You said: (Ref1, Ref2)

"Our kids are falling behind when it comes to science. We have kind of settled into mediocrity when we compare ourselves to other advanced countries and wealthy countries… That's a problem because the reason that America over the last hundred years has consistently been the wealthiest nation is because we've also been the most educated nation… It used to be by a pretty sizable factor we had the highest high school graduation rates, we had the highest college graduation rates, we had the highest number of PhDs, the highest number of engineers and scientists… Though the Americans used to be head and shoulders above the people of other countries, especially in the field of education, they are fast loosing that position…

So even with the good schools, we have got to pick up the pace, because the world has gotten competitive. The Chinese, the Indians, they are coming at us and they're coming at us hard, and they're hungry, and they're really buckling down.”

Is not this is what is called blackmailing? In your statements, you first express envy: “We have kind of settled into mediocrity when we compare ourselves to other advanced countries and wealthy countries.” I note that here you are comparing the position of US vis-à-vis ‘other advanced and wealthy countries’. Do India and China come here? No. You should be talking about countries like Germany, France or may be exclusively – Japan. But you have a job in your hand – to inspire people, 24X7. Envying the Europeans and Japanese is passé. What a better way to inspire the kids than to prepare a soup, opps, curry, made from a little hatred and lots of insecurity? I will explain how this is exactly what you did…

Teaching them whom to hate

While addressing the students of US, you brought in India and China. India! And China! The dreaded job-snatchers from American Silicon valleys – the Bangalorean savages who eat, drink and think software – the manufacturing mavericks who produce computers cheaper than American cell phones – are not these the real ‘circle of evil’ that Americans in Obama Raj should worry about? I love your spirit of teaching. Earlier, you were teaching them how to eat, what to watch on TV, or even how to dream. And now you are teaching them whom to hate! I remember the last time George W Bush used a hard-power to teach Americans whom to hate. Why hard power? Because beards are hard – caps and black veils are hard – nukes and chemical weapons are hard and even oil is hard in some ways. Now you Mr. Obama are using soft power. It’s not difficult to write a book like ‘A hundred reasons to hate Indians and Chinese’. This is a soft way to do the same - blackmail people to do things. (I wonder why Mr. Bush failed to use this type of soft-manipulation – after all he remains one and only MBA President of the USA in entire history!) Indian students are good at software, they are good in space research, even getting better in nuclear and cutting edge technologies, and they have Bangalores. China has Shanghai while Detroit and Manhattan are in the news more because of bankruptcies than anything else! So your problem was how to let Americans realize and come back till they achieve what it seemed they were destined to lose! And through your speeches, you made use of the uncertainly and vulnerability that a US citizen is going through these days, to blackmail them into studies and hard work!

Declining US Growth rates

Your dilemma is how to sustain the supremacy of the US. US growth rates are witnessing saturation: GDP growth in recent years are 3.2% in 2006, 3.2% in 2007, 2 % in 2008, and (-).57% in 2009. The problem is that many things in life are like the bell curve. You have to come down after a point. How you come down and how you prolong your growth phase is in your hands. I will tell where I think you are making mistakes.

How America can still grow

I think you are wrong when you emphasizes that US was supreme because of its “highest education”. Education as an end in itself won’t achieve much. What will the US do when the entire world becomes “higher educated”? It happens so many times in our life too – when we see things as ends in themselves. Is not it the reason why the US firms are losing out? And they are still not learning lessons! Was not this the very reason why US auto giants lost to Japanese and then protected themselves, but again failing now? I think when the entire US growth model is based on a ‘superiority feeling’, it leaves only one direction for movement – downwards…

Recently, I came to know that Google had to buy present day Orkut from a Turkish guy. He worked for the US firm Google! Doesn’t it tell you how much those non-native Americans contribute to your growth? Long before, US firm Microsoft had to buy Hotmail from Sabeer Bhatia. I think the US firms are best at making commercial gains out of ideas. But you should have your own ideas too! Though so many American firms have thrived because of innovation, I see something lacking in your vision. Let us come to the fundamental question – how can US still grow? I think there is only one way – and that is your basic job also. The word is –‘creativity’.

I think the US can still grow only by making ‘creative’ ways into areas where others have not plunged yet… Making the best use of creativity to create niche sectors, to use creativity to come out with lifestyle changing offerings – this is the way forward… Let the Chinese manufacture your designs at the cheapest costs. Let the Indians write software codes for your companies. You should aim at the intellect! But alas, you are fighting with Chinese to continue making tractor components. You are snubbing the Indians for ‘stealing’ your back-office jobs! And then you are blackmailing your people into competing against these very Chinese and Indians? I think this may grant you more years in power in the US, but will take your country downwards…

Please stop blackmailing into future

I think your approach of showing threats to young children to get them to study, and using blackmailing to bring people in the right direction won’t take you far. In fact your approach will kill the very hope that is still remaining in the Great American Dream. Americans like to have fun in doing whatever they have to. The days when the US saw a threat in the USSR and hence made a Space march are over. US now is not an underdog, and those tactics won’t work any longer. The faster you understand this, the quicker you will get back.

In a way, your tactics of threatening and blackmailing will breed a generation of jealous Americans. This would never have happened in history of the US. When a generation of Islam-hating America grew up, we saw the Guantanamo happening. Take care to see if you are not watering a ‘hate-India’ generation to come up… Because, the repercussions would be a loss to the entire world.

From India with love,

(Kumar Rahul)