Digging for Meaning

In advertising, we often come across this four legged spider called 'the perceptual map'. It is quite an interesting tool really. If done right, it is a very efficient visual representation of chosen facts (not the whole truth, but the part that helps win an argument. :P) The uglier mutations of this spider are the intuitive/ judgemental/ consensus maps. The difference is, while the prior is based on numbers, the later are approximate 'gut feelings' of people who sit often removed from reality.  Even then, these are useful, if only in finding new perspectives to see with. We planners tend to use it quite often for its efficiency in meaning making and sharing of perspective. But lately even the clients have wizened up to it. But not entirely. Recently, we were briefed with a perceptual map that had four categories of the product at the four legs of the graph. That makes no sense. I can't share the actual figure of-course, but here's something similar (differe...

Men in air-conditioned glass boxes often feel the need to powerpoint. This might be because what they want to say (or what their counterparts want to hear) is not well formed enough. And saying it simply will unravel the artifice. Powerpoint in that sense is a tool that holds together the artifice. The red ribbon on top of a decorated gift package which possibly holds junk inside. Or the shiny credit rating that hides the shitty credit quality of CDOs.  You might now say that - "No no, it is only a tool. It depends on who uses it for what purpose." Wrong. The medium is the message. And the message is 'suspension of disbelief'. Here the medium necessitates one speaker who often is standing to deliver the message and as such gets into an authoritative position and the listeners have to hold their horses and give their attention to the presenter for a period of time. It gives enough space and time for the con to take effect. The medium of powerpoint intrinsical...

99% of auto expo will appeal to your vanity, 1% of it will appeal to your intelligence. If you have patience only for ground breaking original stuff.. straight go to a certain corner in Hall no. 2 (besides the TVS extravaganza). There you will find this unassuming duo with afro hairdo and a patented technology that they are eager to sell to automobile majors. I am not much on an engineer, (because I am (with a degree) but not really (because I don't work as one)) so I am not in a position to validate what they were saying. But what they said sounds very very interesting. They have made a working bike with no valves, no chains, no cam shaft... as a matter of fact, their engine has only 32 moving parts. Yes. An engine with only 32 moving parts.  Apart from that, the engine can make use of various kinds of fuels (hydrocarbons) apart from petrol. I still have to get to know their offering better, but this sounds exciting. Imagine the service, economy and efficiency im...

in cricket. So the day before I played in a tournament organised by the company I work for where I made a cool 54 runs not out in probably 25-30 balls. I even won the man of the match award. Unprecedented. Unbelievable. Unfuckingwhatthefucktasticallyawesomaliciousinglychutzpahanebulous. Apparently, I hit 5 sixes and 4 fours. ya.. quite unbelievable. I don't remember ever scoring beyond single digits ever before. unless it was an underarm match against kids younger than me. (oh yes, i remember playing with my younger cousins 15 years ago and scoring 200+. It just so happened that we were playing in our attic, and not on the ground. but hey.. we had 'one tappa out' (one bounce out) as well. so that evens out. i hope. i chose to believe.) Typically I bowl. More specifically, I don't bat. I suck at batting. My hand-eye coordination is as bad as that of Snake's. Well, at least a snake has the excuse of not having hands. I don't. And yet we languish at the sam...

This entry is in response to a quora question - What will life to be like 50 years from now?   Future gazing is tricky because, we can affect it to an extent. And 'we' don't act unilaterally, and 'we' don't comprehend the 'extent' of our acts and our limitations. Having said that, here are some trends, in no particular order, which might continue for the next 50 years. 1. Climate change : Humanity has dug its own grave with 2 of earth's 9 ecological boundaries in the red zone. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. There is no doubt that our efforts of survival against climate change will shape our life in future. Again, since there is no unified ‘we’, we humans compete against each other. So there will be winner and there would be losers. Rich have an upper hand – escape from shrinking shores, access to machines to compensate for toxic weather (Air purifiers and ACs for example), money to buy scarce resou...