Uncertainty Principle of Life

The other day, when I was once again reminded about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, I started to think about me. Or should I say a thought sparked in.

By the way, to put it simply, the uncertainty principle says that a fundamental limit on the accuracy with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, such as position and momentum, can be simultaneously known. In other words, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be controlled, determined, or known.

Now what it has to do with our lives? You don’t know it unless you are in control of and responsible for something. I am a web designer. I want to create great and user friendly websites for basic users. For this, I have to go through a large number of websites created by other designers and developers. But by doing this, I sort of choose to go on advanced user level. And at the same time, I cease to know precisely the needs of a basic user.

In the same way, when you turn into a parent, you have to think like one. But for being a good parent, you want to know or guess what your child thinks. But as you assume your new role of parenting, it gets increasingly difficult to think like a child and to read a child’s mind.

I have came across a large numbers of lecturers and teachers in my life who, when left alone, are masters in their subjects. But when the try to explain it, they fail miserably. That is because they fail to read the needs of the minds of their students.

That is one more reason for you to want to achieve a state of perfect balance in your life. Running blindly in a direction is easy, but knowing where to slow down or where to stop and doing so can be incredibly difficult. But doing exactly that is what makes all the difference.

Steal Their Ideas, Don’t Just Copy Them!

Corporate world is full of copy cats. People try to make an exact copy of whatever is successful in recent times. Be it some product, a movie, TV serial or a book. It’s alright when people do it on local level or in the form of some stepping stone from where they actually plan to go somewhere.

Apple (read – Steve Jobs) is the best known example of copying things successfully. But when it copied things, it changed them so much for better that it looked like a totally different thing, which established Apple as their owner. And as these things were now available in much better form, original ideas became worthless. This was something more than copying. This was stealing.

When you copy something, the original thing remains with the original and rightful owner. What you can get is (at the most) as good returns as the original owner gets. But when you steal, you become the owner. The original rightful owner ceases to be in possession of that thing (or the fruits of it). Apple (you know what to read) had mastered this art.

But what happens when another top level company tries to copy Apple?

You must have seen the popular 1984 commercial by Apple which was aired only once and gave the company promotion worth of millions of dollars. The commercial was aimed at IBM, the then computing giant. It was (hopefully) original idea which worked as a charm for apple.

But after two decades or so, BlackBerry tries to do the same with the current tech giant – Apple. Though it gained somewhat popularity as a gimmick amongst some Internet users, it never delivered what BlackBerry aimed for. Because, they had just copied the idea. And the presentation was crude. Apple didn’t have to strike back, but it sort of did.

Moral of the story? Don’t just copy their ideas, steal them!