Against the Principles of Gandhi...

A number of books have been written on Mahatma Gandhi, but the most recent one by Joseph Lelyveld has allegedly given some titillating insights into Mahatma's sexual preferences. People have started demanding a formal (by law) ban on the book, and criminal proceedings on the writer of the book. This post is about to point-out some serious moral dangers behind such an action...

I ask the reader; 'Are we really talking about protecting image of someone who himself had been against any such protection his entire life...?'

Crave for Luxury & Get Self interest Free!

|"Build your own legacy by supporting others! Brand You is NOT selfish!!!"  ~Tom Peters
This is a long time debate, that people at higher rungs in the society should also care about those at the bottom of pyramid, and that these people generally don't much care about the holistic social benefit. 

How true is that claim? 

A recent research done by Harvard professor Roy Y.J. Chua and Xi Zou, an assistant professor at London Business School, tries to answer this question. It says that, "luxury goods have an important effect on human behavior". And people who crave for luxury items are more likely to act in their own self interest in their decision making! And I think it goes pretty well when we talk about high-flying executives on Wall Street.

Debate: Online versus Offline behaviour

It has been a very long debate. People have different responses to the question: "Why our online behavior is different (if any) from the offline behavior?" And now people have already started responding on "How to deal with the errant offline behavior?" I recently came across a post by Justine Larbalestier, where he talks about his way of dealing with such people. In his post he says:

The Rural Divide

When you visit a rural village in India, you would easily get to understand the rural divide that exists there. A village is generally divided in terms of cast, religion, or social status of its people. People argue that, these rural people are illiterate and don't understand the importance of thinking beyond the casts and religion....

My point of contention is that; are we urbanites living in a Utopian world where everything is as the way it should be? Have you missed the urban divide around you? 

Its very easy to pinpoint the divide in a village, because of its sheer small size, but aren't these same (and sometimes severe) divides exist in a city? 

I spread your idea because...

According to Marketing Guru seth Godin; Ideas spread when people choose to spread them. And Here are some reasons why:

1. I spread your idea because it makes me feel generous.
2. ...because I feel smart alerting others to what I discovered.
3. ...because I care about the outcome and want you (the creator of the idea) to succeed.
4. ...because I have no choice. Every time I use your product, I spread the idea (Hotmail, iPad, a tattoo).
5. ...because there's a financial benefit directly to me (Amazon affiliates, mlm).
6. ...because it's funny and laughing alone is no fun.
7. ...because I'm lonely and sharing an idea solves that problem, at least for a while.
8. ...because I'm angry and I want to enlist others in my outrage (or in shutting you down).
9. ...because both my friend and I will benefit if I share the idea (Groupon).
10. ...because you asked me to, and it's hard to say no to you.
11. ...because I can use the idea to introduce people to one another, and making a match is both fun in the short run and community-building.
12. ...because your service works better if all my friends use it (email, Facebook).
13. ...because if everyone knew this idea, I'd be happier.
14. ...because your idea says something that I have trouble saying directly (AA, a blog post, a book).
15. ...because I care about someone and this idea will make them happier or healthier.
16. ...because it's fun to make another teen snicker about prurient stuff we're not supposed to see.
17. ...because the tribe needs to know about this if we're going to avoid an external threat.
18. ...because the tribe needs to know about this if we're going to maintain internal order.
19. ...because it's my job.
20. I spread your idea because I'm in awe of your art and the only way I can repay you is to share that art with others.

There are several new concepts emerging with the advent of internet. Some of them are open source intelligence, TED (a platform for spreading ideas), blogs, facebook, youtube....etc.

Watch this video on social intelligence.

Watch this video on 'ideas on spreading ideas'

World is changing with a dramatic speed like never before, because of literally cost free spreading of ideas. Today ideas have no boundaries, they are not owned by certain few! 

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Ghost of Large number of Choices

Post written by Anshul Gupta. Follow me on twitter.

Are we being fooled by large number of choices that we face today? Andy Andrews; an inspirational author and speaker, once said, "The greatest power ever bestowed upon mankind is the power of choice. Choose to persist without exception. Hold fast to your dreams and stay the course, even in the face of exhaustion, rejection, and uncertainty." But that same power of choice is weakening us today while we consider our decision making abilities. Because we no longer have requisite number of choices, instead we have what I call flooding of choices....

For example, we know that in reality there is no scientific difference between Coke and Pepsi, but we tend to perceive them as different. We have so many choices in so many fields that it has now become a major cause of bad decision making. See the video (below) and this point would become more clear:

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