I start my classes in entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship by discussing recent articles I have read (that are shared with students before class). About 25-33% of the students read these articles before class. The rest of the class is just interested in grades and reads the assigned materials. These articles are usually a deep dive into a subject the assigned materials may just touch on.
Lately I have been reading Ray Kurzweil's "How to create a mind: the secret of human thought revealed". The book deals with the history of neuroscience, AI and thinking, with a dash of epistemology and meta-ethics thrown in for completeness. One of those rare books where you read for twenty minutes, go away and think about what you read for several days and then read some more. Kurzweil's book provides much of the intellectual underpinning for an article in The Economist,"Technology and jobs: Coming to an office near you".
The Economist chronicles the upcoming dislocation in jobs, with computer technology replacing up to 47 percent of jobs in the next 20 years (numbers very similar to other sources I have seen). Basically artificial intelligence and their devices, what you call robots, have advanced to the point where many traditional jobs can be done by devices of one type or another. You have been following Google's driverless cars and contact lenses to measure sugar levels for diabetes patients?
Back to Kurzweil, who along with Marvin Minsky and Herbert Simon (founders of AI), point out that AI and neuroscience advances are teaching each other about their subjects. AI teaches us about neuroscience and neuroscience helps us to improve AI, all with the outcome of computers increasingly approaching the abilities of the human mind. I think Kurweil might be saying that critical thinking may be the only function of the brain/mind that cannot yet be duplicated through a computer.
This increasing sophistication in AI suggests that the disruption to jobs may be underestimated significantly and especially by the governments in developed countries such as the U.S. While certain governments talk about wealth concentration, this is just a number of no consequences. Popular politically but of no consequence in the lives of ordinary people. Jobs might be the better issue but the government does not have a solution, which is why they are distracting us with the speciousness of wealth concentration.
Actually, the issue the government needs to address is how do people need to be educated and trained to live productively (economically) in a world where computers and robots will be able to do 90-95% of all the work performed in 1900. Governments are not designed to handle environmental change of such consequence. Governments manage status quo adequately but do not shine in rapidly and dramatically changing environments they have not seen before. Governments can barely handle a hurricane let alone the complete disruption of the labor force...in the U.S. Perhaps the days of government as "Big Brother" are numbered. Perhaps the private sector will need to take more responsibility. I guess organized religion is another alternative. Probably does not matter where the solution comes from, but someone needs to prepare people for this new world where AI plays a bigger role.
Sounds like a business opportunity to me. Maybe the charter schools were just practice for a declining role for government.
Occassionally I find someone who helps me to resolve issues or conflicts that trouble me. This post from 2009 about George Polya, "George Polya-Problem Solving and Heuristics", is a case in point.
A recent story in Slate about Susan Sontag answered several questions that I have been pondering in recent years. Sontag was an acclaimed 20th century novelist and essayist. We shared a liberal period in the early 1970s, but for Sontag it was a life calling whereas for me it was just a period on the way to a more conservative outlook. I find it somewhat amusing that I draw so much insight from a gay, Jewish woman, which probably shows that none of that is relevant. Perhaps our common interests in philosophy, writing and teaching explain this "bond", but I think not. I suspect that we have just thought about some on the same questions and now I can probably consider some answered or at least resolved.
This description of Sontag I found particularly interesting.
"Sontag’s ongoing investment in the development and definition of herself always seemed less like self-obsession than a kind of existential industriousness....you get the sense of a person who was always working toward an ideal version of herself. The ideal changed in its particulars over time, but the ideal of change remained constant... a useful reminder that being a pseudo-intellectual is a necessary stage on the way to being a nonpseudo-intellectual, and that the two classifications aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Being an intellectual is often, after all, a matter of getting away with trying to be seen as one."
"The ideal of change remained constant" is comforting. While such an expression sounds like a cliche, it is not so mundane when the change is in large part in your mind and how it works. How to become an intellectual I also found to be very telling.
This description of her erudition was insightful for me.
“As I listened to her clear, authoritative, and direct responses to my questions, it was obvious that she had attained the conversational goal that she had set for herself many years before.” The idea of this persuasive fluency of speech as something constructed, something striven for and achieved"
This is the standard of speech that any thinking person should strive for. It is an amazing demonstration of discipline and intellect, especially when done everyday.
This quote about curiosity is the point missed in the education debate.
"The way in which she positions curiosity as not just a primary critical value, but a primary human value." To be curious is, in the most vital sense, to be serious."
Curiosity is the driving force behind all discovery but rarely used as a pedagogical device in most schools.
I think this quote from Sontag provides great insight into writing.
"I feel I’m changing all the time, and that’s something that’s hard to explain to people, because a writer is generally thought to be someone who’s either engaging in self-expression or else doing work to convince or change people along the lines of his or her views. And I don’t feel that either of those models makes much sense for me. I mean, I write partly in order to change myself so that once I write about something I don’t have to think about it anymore. And when I write, it actually is to get rid of those ideas. That may sound contemptuous of the public, because obviously when I’ve gotten rid of those ideas, I’ve passed them on as things that I believe— and I do believe them when I write them— but I don’t believe them after I’ve written them because I’ve moved on to some other view of things, and it’s become still more complicated ... or perhaps more simple."
I like the concept that writing rids one of the ideas and also that the ideas can evolve. This idea of evolution explains a great thinker like Friedrich Hayek, whose views on certain subjects change profoundly, in my opinion, over his lifetime. Of course, the talent shows itself in differentiating the half-baked idea from the foundational thinking.
Note: In the related article below, Sontag's views on photography are interesting. She explained my lack of interest in taking photos, something which I had been pondering for 40 years.
Strategic planning for business was first formalized in the 1970s with new processes from McKinsey (the customer-market matrix), the BCG matrix (cash cows, dogs and stars) and the ground breaking books of Michael Porter on competitive analysis as the basis of strategy. This shift to formal processes followed the move in economics from more philosophical writings (e.g. the Austrian School) to a "scientific" approach (e.g. the Chicago School). As is the case with all new movements, intellectual or otherwise, the move toward scientific approaches was probably overdone.
In the last few years there has been a change in strategic planning for business. In part the change recognizes the simple fact that a process is only as good as the thinking of the people using the process. The increased focus on the quality of thinking is demonstrated in a new article in the McKinsey Quarterly,"Mastering the Building Blocks of Strategy". McKinsey describes the building blocks and the process as shown below.
The "Frame" building block demonstrates the change from a purely analytical approach to a more contemplative approach of "framing the question" or as McKinsey describes it "what are the right questions". As McKinsey states:
"That’s why taking some time to frame issues at the outset is so important. When strategists do so, they are better able to identify the real choices and constraints facing their organizations and to see which building blocks are likely to matter most given the situation at hand."
I disagree with McKinsey and believe that the environmental analysis and problem identification precede the "framing" step. How do you frame a question if you have not collected current data and information (Diagnosis and Forecast).
McKinsey offers no advice on how to "frame the question" in the article, which is perhaps why two Paris-based Partners from BCG, Luc de Brabandere and Alan Ivy, wrote "Thinking in New Boxes". This book offers an approach to bring greater creativity to thinking and strategy development. The example that illustrates the approach is a story about Bic, the French manufacturer of disposable pens, razors, etc. When pen sale revenues started to flatten out, the company explored what other kinds of disposable pens they could offer and realized there where no good opportunities. Presumably with the help of BCG, Bic realized that they were in the disposable business and not in the pen business. With this realization they launched many successful disposable products. The Bic story is an excellent illustration of framing or re-framing the question, but I found little really new in the book for anyone familiar with design thinking, "impossible" problems or the writings of Marvin Minsky.
For new thoughts on thinking and strategy development, I recommend William Duggan's book, "Strategic Intuition". Duggan draws a distinction between "expert" and "strategic" intuition. Expert intuition is the "technically" grounded, repetitive analysis of the familiar. Strategic analysis is the slow, iterative exploration of the "new", what Einstein called "combinatorial". Duggan devotes 100 pages to describing strategic intuition and making it user friendly. One example from the book shows Napolean's strategic intuition and how he came to a successful new military tactic. What Napolean, an expert in military strategy and tactics, realized was that he had been taught to fight battles where the enemy was located. What Napolean realized (the strategic intuition) was that he would be more successful if the battles took place where he wanted. Duggan does a beautiful job of using many illustrative examples, such as Napoleon, to make clear and usable the concept of strategic intuition. Strategic intuition is an approach that implicitly relies on "framing the question" properly.
A last thought on strategy, which is also inspired by the military. Something that I have been thinking about for awhile is why snipers were so effective in Iraq but were not used more in previous conflicts by the U.S. military. I think Duggan's Bonaparte example provides the answer. Snipers allowed the U.S. military to pick where they wanted to fight in a conflict without a lot of set piece battles. Snipers also had a special expertise and were available in large numbers compared with the insurgents. The psychological benefits of snipers against an informal opponent were an added plus.
If you do not like books on strategy, creativity or "framing the question", the snipers provide three easy to use lessons about strategy:
Pick the part of the market you want to dominate rather than fighting with the entrenched competition (Napoleon)
Execute a strategy that plays to your special strengths and expertise (snipers)
Bring sufficient resources to succeed (lots of special operations and conventional military snipers)
If you want to know why snipers are so effective, early man had no enemies that swooped down from the sky to eat them. Therefore, man evolved with a two dimensional field of vision that really ignored looking up (where the sniper lives). Increasingly, it all comes back to neuroscience.
"@rhhfla What to do if the spending to acquire the new customers is the problem? And what mediums should be used to acquire these?"
If you missed the post, one key point for an early stage company is to work to accurately determine its customer acquisition cost in order to grow revenue. What I replied to the ad exec was:
"@xxxxx Compare monthly targets against analytics for each media in terms of both leads and closes. Change investment to most effective one"
Recognizing the limitations of 144 characters let me elaborate.
For every media one should set monthly targets for leads, closes and the conversion %. These targets are then compared against actual results. Several software programs allow a company to determine where the leads come from (Twitter, Pinterest, email, etc.) and how many leads closed. Leads and conversion ratio (closes/leads) are the key performance indicators to analyze. If leads are below target, it may be a messaging problem. If conversions are low it may be that the closing process is too complicated (change website, train staff better, etc.) or pricing needs to be evaluated. Where people drop out of the conversion process may tell you which problem it is.
If closes for a media reach the monthly target, adjust to new conversion ratio and put more investment in this media. The assumption here is that the number of closes is meaningful. Herein lies the art or common sense behind the science and numbers.
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, will soon be the owner of the Washington Post. Bezos is arguably the best tech CEO in the world today and probably does not need my help. However, my experience with the New York Times might prove useful.
I subscribed to the NYT for 37 years and then dropped my subscription in favor of other online news sources about three years ago. About two years ago I discovered the NYT Skimmer, a beautifully designed, ad free (in the copy) version of the NYT. The design was so well done that I did not think it was a NYT offering. I have been reading the Skimmer faithfully for two years and the design has even encouraged me to read sections I never read before (e.g. obituaries). First point for Jeff Bezos, please offer a skimmer version of the online WP with a clean, modern design.
Recently, the NYT Skimmer changed its policies. Now to view a second story in a section (e.g. business, technology), you are presented with an ad to subscribe to the NYT. If you do not subscribe you are limited to one free story per section. The idea for Jeff Bezos to consider is rather than selling subscriptions, just sell individual articles in the Skimmer. Five or ten cents per article charged to a credit card works for me. I would pay that if it was automatically charged to the card. To avoid having to log in every day or every article to use the credit card, he could offer the WP Skimmer in a Kindle version (which is available for almost every computing device).
I ordered my first Kindle e-book reader the week it became available. I switched to Kindle on iPad only to reduce the number of devices I traveled with. However, I continue to follow developments in e-book readers as part of my interest in educational technology and there is much innovation in the space.
Yesterday Fast Company had an interesting story on a new e-book reader from Readmill. The Fast Company story highlights a feature of Readmill which allows you to share your comments and highlights of a book with other readers (and perhaps the author) to enrich the reader's understanding through dialogue, thereby creating a social community for the book and the readers.
That's a nice idea but what really caught my attention were three key points which exemplify excellent entrepreneurship:
Rather than taking the Amazon approach of using e-book readers to sell books, Readmill started with the more fundamental question of how can an e-book reader enhance the reading experience for the reader. Starting with the question framed correctly is a key to entrepreneurship that finds large market opportunities.
Readmill is a free app for iPad and iPhone and soon will be available on Android. The company plans to generate revenue by selling data on how the books are read to publishers using the commentary data captured in the social community. I have many times advocated for a business model where the product is free and revenue is derived from re-selling usage data to interested companies. Readmill is one of the first companies that I know of to use this model.
Readmill describes their product as creating a social community, which is the rage today and probably an easy way to explain the product to investors. However, I see Readmill at the forefront of a more important trend--curation of information. As I have posted many times, with the vast amounts of information produced on the web, the challenge is in curating that information for an individual user. Suppose we have a complex book like a book by Michael Porter, FA Hayek or Descartes. Where would you go today for help to better understand it. Wikipedia, Goodreads and other traditional sources do not provide in depth information for better understanding. In 2-3 years I think everybody might go to Readmill first, to search the "community" feed on the book to find curated information--specific to the need, expert commentary and easily found. Imagine the benefit of reading Michael Porter or the leading authority on Descartes interpretation of a highlighted passage in a book. In my opinion that is the real potential of Readmill. (Previous posts on curation of information are here and here.)
I do not know if Readmill will be a commercial success. For example, Inkling and Oxford University Press have really good e-book readers with a strong feature set. However, I think that if Readmill can continue to enhance the quality of the curation of the reader commentary to become the definite source on books, then I think that they have the potential for a sustainable differential advantage in the e-book reader space.
It's rare when I find a list of books on entrepreneurship or business where several of the books I have read and found worth reading. Inc. magazine has a new list out, "10 Eye-Opening Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read". These books are not academic type books like Jim Collins or Clayton Christensen write but rather more practical and perhaps easier to understand.
Everybody should try to read more during summer vacation. Some of the books I am considering for my new course "Entrepreneurship, Design and Thinking" are below.
Marvin Minsky "The Emotion Machine"
Barbara Millman "How to Think Like a Graphic Designer"
Richard Hamming "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering"
CK Prahalad "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid"
In the fall I am going to teach a new undergraduate seminar at FIU--"Entrepreneurship, Design and Thinking". In many ways this course is the result of my thinking over the last three years on entrepreneurship. An important part of my thinking on entrepreneurship is that it is a process, a deliberate set of steps, that leads to better results. I now believe that this process has two parts:
The design process, in which the customer problem is defined and a solution is developed to fill the gap caused by the problem. An excellent book on the design process is Karl Ulrich's Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society, which is used in Ulrich's Coursera design course.
The business model process, wherein the five parts of a business model are systematically analyzed and the best choices are selected. (My book, Billion Dollar Company, deals with the business model process.)
However, neither of these processes individually or together explain the difference between great new business ideas and mediocre ones. What explains the difference is the quality and type of thinking that one brings to the development of the startup. Therefore, to provide a complete methodology on entrepreneurship, I have concluded that I need to teach about thinking, the alternative approaches to problem solving and other methodologies.
Fortunately, Marvin Minsky has written a lot on the subject of thinking about complex problems. One of Minsky's books that deals with thinking is "The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind". (Ulrich studied with Minsky at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, that Minsky co-founded.) The quote from Minsky that started me thinking about thinking is a remark he made at the 25th anniversary of the MIT Media Lab.
As I more fully develop the curriculum for the seminar, I will be posting on the readings for the course. I will continue to teach my courses on entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.
In a sense the first is Science—what is possible. The second is Engineering—what are the human factors which choose the one future that happens from the ensemble of all possible futures. The third is ethics or morals or whatever other word you wish to apply to value judgments. It is important to examine all three questions, and in so far as the second differs from the third, you will probably have an idea of how to alter things to make the more desireable future occur, rather than let the inevitable occur and suffer the consequences."
"All government policies adopted to meet a crisis presume that the government knows how to effect the rescue it seeks. If the crisis arises from an attack by foreigners, the government purports to know how to mount military countermeasures that will defeat or disable the enemy. If the crisis consists of economic malfunctions, the government purports to know how to alter its spending, taxing, or regulation so that the economy will be restored to sound operation. These presumptions are in general counterfactual." Delusions of Power by Robert Higgs
"Public policies are determined and laws are made by small minorities playing upon the fears and imbecilities of the mob – sometimes minorities of intelligent and honest men, but usually minorities of rogues." H.L.Mencken
The Washington Post has a review of the new book by Niall Ferguson, "Civilization: The West and the Rest". Ferguson is a noted historian and professor at Harvard. In explaining the success of England and most of Europe post 1500, the reviewer cites Fergueson's six "institutional arrangements":
"Competition, meaning a decentralization of power among nations and within them, necessary to create the right environment for capitalism
Science, whose discoveries laid the basis not only for the Industrial Revolution but also for overwhelming military advantage
Property rights, which provided a framework for the rule of law and laid the foundation for shared political and economic power
Medicine, which led to a dramatic rise in life expectancy
A consumer focus to economic life that fueled demand for modern industrial products
A work ethic that provided a moral framework for savings, investment and hard toil"
These six themes also explain the success of the U.S.
It would be nice if U.S. politicians from both parties addressed these issues in the upcoming elections. Then the discussion would be on the role of states rights (1), smaller government (1) the environment (2), how to share economic and political power (3), the future of medicine (4) and individual responsibility (5,6). For example, "how to share economic and political power" might be a better discussion than budget deficits, wealth inequality and superpacs. "The future of medicine" might lead to a better discussion of healthcare. A discussion of states rights might allow us to address certain issues at the local level where consensus might more easily be found, such as abortion, same sex marriage and education .
I will be doing a workshop for the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce on February 8 from 10 am -12 noon. I expect that more established business owners will attend so the focus will be on how to grow a business. The topics will include understanding the customer, the growth drivers in the business and what prevents scaling a business. Many of the themes are discussed in my book, "Billion Dollar Company: An entrepreneur's guide to business models for high growth companies", which is available on Amazon. Video review of my book by Jeff Stamp is here.
For the second year I will be teaching a course in social entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management beginning January 23. I am planning to use the first half of my new book as part of the teaching materials. Will be very interesting to get feedback from the students.
The first half of the book deals with:
Why social entrepreneurship emerged as a new business model at the end of the 20th century
Discusses entrepreneurial and non-profit business models as major influences on social entrepreneurship
Defines social entrepreneurship
Describes the three business models for social entrepreneurship
For the sake of completeness, the second half of the book deals with how to successfully scale a social entrepreneurship venture. Many of the points are illustrated by examples from OLPC.
Anybody who wants to meet up in Boston should let me know.
The blog Curiosity Counts had this interesting quote from Marshall McLuhan:
"When any new form comes into the foreground of things, we naturally look at it through the old stereos."
Trying to understand McLuhan's idea better I clicked through to this post on Brain Pickings, where I found this quote by Evgeny Morozov:
"Our Internet intellectuals lack the intellectual ambition, and the basic erudition, to connect their thinking with earlier traditions of social and technological criticism. They desperately need to believe that their every thought is unprecedented. Sometimes it seems as if intellectual life doesn’t really thrill them at all. They never stoop to the lowly task of producing expansive and expository essays, where they could develop their ideas at length, by means of argument and learning, and fully engage with their critics. Instead they blog, and tweet, and consult, and give conference talks—modes of discourse that are mostly impervious to serious critique.”
I have been advocating for greater public intellectualism since I started this blog. This post from January 2008 is the first on the subject and captures many of the same ideas as Morozov.
In 2012 perhaps we should resist a bit the tendency for short superfluos publishing made possible by FB, Twitter and other digital technology. Perhaps we should rather develop more in-depth thoughtful written pieces or put the energy into book writing. That's the idea to guide you in 2012.
I am not inspired this year to do a post on the future. So I have opted to do some 2011 compilations instead. The first one is here.
These are some of the best books I read this year and recommend. They are not all recently published, but all are thought provoking examinations of interesting issues.
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard W. Hamming. Hamming was a world famous mathematician who also studied where great ideas come from.
Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen. Christensen applies his disruptive innovation methodology to the U.S. education system and concludes that something like OLPC is the solution to the current problems.
Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham. Almost included this book as required reading in my entrepreneurship classes.
In the Plex by Steven Levy. An excellent history of the early days at Google.
Monsoon by Robert D. Kaplan. Excellent examination of the historical and current issues surrounding the geo-political significance of the Indian Ocean in the next 50 years. Favorite book of 2011.
The Next Convergence by Michael Spence. One should read a book by a Nobel Prize winner every year. Book discusses the effects of the digital world on future economic growth.
The Misbehavior of Markets by Bernard Mandelbrot. Mandelbrot researched in fractal geometry, which lead to chaos theory. The world of finance has not been the same ever since. Required reading for any serious student of finance.
And yes I did read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Good book but I think you need years of experience in entrepreneurship and/or business to fully appreciate the lessons from Job's. This post on Steve Job's best quote may actually explain my rather eclectic reading list.
I find it tough to find good book recommendations. My best source is Hacker News. Arts & Letters Daily is another good source.
All of these books are available on Amazon as e-books.
It has been quite a long time since I promoted my blog. This post on MonetizeD reminded me that such efforts are long overdue.
MonetizeD recommends a professional picture on the blog. My best photo is below.
MonetizeD recommends "list your important accomplishments, but don’t go overboard!". I have updated my iPad to the new OS 5 all by myself.....and the iPad still works ....is my most important accomplishment in the last 48 hours. I will refrain from listing yet another speech, workshop or conference where I am speaking....because I did that yesterday.
The next MonetizeD point is "talk about how long you’ve been involved in this niche". I have been involved in attempts at humorous blog posts since the inception of Sophisticated Finance. All 20 humor posts are here. My favorite is here. For you new readers, the favorite post discusses the Hacker Universal Theory of Management "HUTM". Reminder: always have an acronym for a theory.
The next advice from MonetizeD: "you have to let your potential customers know that you’re totally into what you’re doing, and should show them why they should be into it, too. A picture will suffice to document my ardent support for this notion of "total commitment" to humor--my FB pic--Google's tribute to Jim Henson. A brilliant, elegant and funny piece of work, as shown below.
MonetizeD also recommends "give them top-notch stuff!". See the history of humorous posts link above or if you are really nerd like check out these posts on Excel modeling. If that does not satisfy your craving for intellectual stimulation, this post on game theory in economic development is surprisingly popular and this post on mathematician George Polya is approaching "all time favorites" levels.
Last piece of advice from MonetizeD: "Keep in touch. Make sure you give your readers each and every link to all your social media profiles." All of my social media links are here, on my book site. MonetizeD forgot to tell you to write a book, so I add this reminder.
All good advice from MonetizeD if you are serious about promoting your blog.
A short profile on what I do when I am more serious is here.
The ever inventive Fred Wilson of AVC blog yesterday posted on how to capture Kindle highlights from their web storage...and then share them. Use this link in any Kindle device and login https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights. All your highlights and notes appear.
I mentioned in yesterday's post how much I am enjoying Robert Kaplan's Monsoon and hopefully my Kindle highlights below do justice to the rich content of this book.
Your Highlights (Most recently updated first)
Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power by Robert D. Kaplan
You have 9 highlighted passages
You have 1 note
Last annotated on August 6, 2011
The Indian Ocean is small in a cultural sense, but too vast even in the jet age for one power to gain real sway over it. The Portuguese conquest, like the conquests of the Dutch and the British that followed, reflects both the dynamism and imprudence to which all empires are susceptible. It is a lesson the United States would do well to learn.
For Sindhi nationalists, the Arabian Sea might yet return to its pre-Portuguese medieval past, as a place of regions and principalities, in which Kabul and Karachi were as united with Lahore and Delhi as Delhi was with Bangalore and the rest of south India.
This search for a reinvented national greatness among middle-class Hindus of India also applies to the new Muslim middle classes of Pakistan and Iran, which is why all three are intoxicated about the idea of nuclear weapons. Whether it is the Mauryan Empire in India, or the Achaemenid Empire in Persia, for millions lifted out of poverty and recently educated, the bomb now summons forth these great kingdoms of antiquity.
He seems to have imagined, most erroneously in our opinion, that he could effect nothing against such [Indian] adversaries, if he was content to be bound by ties from which they were free, if he went on telling truth, and hearing none, if he fulfilled, to his own hurt, all his engagements with confederates who never kept an engagement that was not to their advantage. Accordingly this man, in the other parts of his life an honorable English gentleman and a soldier, was no sooner matched against an Indian intriguer, than he became himself an Indian intriguer.…
poet, short story writer, novelist, and artist Rabindranath Tagore, who in 1913 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow Domestic walls
Man is often compelled by circumstances to undertake cruel deeds but true humanity is to forget them. What remains eternal with man for which he builds temples and monasteries it is surely not violence. Herein is the essential Tagore.
I have been traveling alot recently and therefore reading more. I generally read books in four broad categories:
Entrepreneurship
Geo-politics
Economic Development
Neuroscience/education
The books I have been reading include:
Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen The HBS professor applies his disruptive innovation model to American schools. I recommend it to anyone interested in understanding the role of computers in education.
Hackers and Painters by Phil Graham The founder of Y Combinator talks about computing, coding and startups. Good enough for my entrepreneurship class.
Monsoon by Robert D. Kaplan This book explores the emerging importance of the Indian Ocean and traces the history for its importance
