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!

..

रिते रिते मन

  तुला भेटल्यापासून

  जसे वाचलेले सारे

  कुणी जावे विसरून

आता अंतरात माझ्या

  

गच्च आभाळ भरून

तुझ्या होकाराची वाट

  बघ पाहतो दुरून

तोड बंध सारे

  जाऊ दे पाऊस पडून

  कशी होशील हिरवी

 थोडी भिजल्यावाचून?
-यशोधन

Mausam

I watched "Mausam" and wanted to write a film review. But then I came across this and instantly knew that this is exactly what I wanted to say. Even more than what I wanted to say.

I insist everybody out there to watch this movie. But don't go there with wrong mood or expectations. Read the review so you know what you are going to see there.

For those who are dumb enough to not to realize that the word "this" in the very second sentence was the link to the review, here is the same link again. And to make it work, you are supposed to click on it.

http://news.worldsnap.com/entertainment/movie-review/mausam-movie-reviews-shahid-kapoor-stands-tall-110665.html

The Art of Banner Ads

Banner ads have become more and more important from past few decades. If you place a proper ad at a proper place, it may be very helpful in boosting your business. And on the face of it, it looks like we are thinking enough about those. But it we examine it in result oriented fashion, we see the scope for improvement.

I never could understand why people strive so hard to put their ads in the crowd of other ads? I mean, when you go to a mall, or a busy street, you see endless stream of ads. In many cases, two rival products are boasting about their quality while hanging together. What’s the point? If we talk about malls, there are too many lights and too many other “physically present” products, to make your two-dimensional advertisement really matter. And these ads are costly too.

And when it comes to a busy street, well the banners become even more illogical. For God’s sake, that’s a busy street! People are supposed to be busy there! People don’t WANT to see your ads there. For them, those are just obstacles and a reason to make that place look more cramped. Even when people stop on a busy road, all they want to see it open space, which they can see only in upward direction. But your ads block their view. What do you think this makes them think?

There’s another (though not so serious) mistake we tend to do. When it comes to place the banners, we prefer posh areas (again malls) over the slums. But again, we forget something. When the surrounding is as beautiful as (or even more) than your banner, why would people look at your ad? And again, you are creating a slightly negative impact by standing in the way of their beautiful view. And on top of it, this option costs more!

But if you erect a banner in a dirty area, say a slum, people are just looking for something good they can stare. If your ad happens to be the most beautiful thing in the eyesight, naturally it will get some long stares and the small details you so painstakingly have put in your ad will get noticed. And this package costs cheap. I did a small research and found that ugly sites earn more through Google ads than their pretty counterparts. And this is for the same reason. When you land on an ugly webpage, you just want to get away. And of an advertisement happens to be the neatest thing on the page, you tend more to click on it!

So when next time you want to place a banner for advertisement, make sure you are getting long enough stares from a person in right state of mind for your product.

The Art of Creativity

Oversimplification kills the fun.

But who will tell this to our Bollywood people? They just don’t realize that people like it when they have to think while watching the movies. They like to decipher, to solve the mystery. They like to interact.

Any experience of art should be both ways. It’s not just about the artist reaching out to the viewers. But also, it’s about the viewers reaching out to the art. And the ultimate height of any experience of art is when all three points artist-art-viewer form an equilateral triangle.

This is why computer games, puzzles, fantasy novels are so popular. In each of these cases, you have to interact. But all we have to do while watching the typical Hindi movies is to dumb-down your mentality. Let alone taking efforts for thinking, we have to take efforts for not to think!

If you want your piece of art to be heart-touching, make sure that you hit the point of perfect balance. After all, travelling to the Disney Land is also part of the fun!

मसण्या उद

उदमांजर नावाचा एक प्राणी आहे. त्याला मसण्या उद असंही म्हणतात. कारण तो स्मशानात जाऊन पुरलेली प्रेतं उकरतो. माणसांत सुद्धा मसण्या उद असतात. प्रेतं उकरण्यातच त्यांना रस असतो. भोवताली असण्या-या असंख्य सजीव आणि चैतन्यमयी गोष्टी सोडून ते स्मशान धुंडाळत फिरत असतात.

अण्णा हजारे आंदोलनाला बसले आणि काही दुर्लक्षीत प्राण्यांना चर्चेत येण्याची संधी दिसली. राष्ट्रीय पातळीच्या वृत्तपत्रांपासून गावपातळीच्या स्वत:ला प्रसारमाध्यम समजणा-या हँडबिलांपर्यंत सर्वाना आपली अक्कल पाजळण्याची आठवण झाली. अरुंधती रॉय पासून गल्लीच्या कोप-यावर बसणा-या रिकामटेकड्यापर्यंत सगळ्या बेरोजगारांना अचानक सुवर्णसंधी दिसायला लागली.

या लोकांची एक सवय असते. यांच्या समोर काहीही टाकले तरी हे खायला तयार असतात. मात्र, खाण्या आधी हे लोक भोकं शोधत राहतात. अर्थात, भारत नावाच्या "जो जे वांछील, तो ते लाहो" या तत्वानुसार चालणा-या देशात त्यांना भोकं मिळतातही. वारा कसाही वाहत असो, आकाशाच्या रंग कसाही असो, उन असो वा पाऊस, थंडी असो वा गरमी, या लोकांना सतत काही तरी टोचत असतं. कोणी काही करायला निघाला की जीवाची बाजी लावून मध्ये बोटं टाकणारी ही मंडळी एरवी एक बोटही हलवायला तयार नसतात.

काय चुकलं हे सांगण्यात सगळ्यात पुढे असणारे हे लोक. पण काय करायला हवं हे विचारलं, की काही तरी गुळमुळीत बोलून सुटणार. यांचे घोडे नेहमी वरातीमागुनच धावतात. चौ-याहत्तर वर्षांचा म्हातारा आपल्यासाठी हे करतोय याची त्यांना लाज वाटत नाही. पण अण्णांसाठी रस्त्यावर उतरण्या-यांना मेणबत्ती संप्रदाय म्हणून हिणवण्यात यांना पुरुषार्थ वाटतो. एरवी हे लोक घरातल्या सर्वात आतल्या खोलीत डायनिंग टेबल वर बसून बायका पोरांसमोर पुढा-यांच्या ढुंगणावर फटके मारण्याच्या वल्गना करत असतात.

बोलण्यासाठी पैसा आणि अक्कल दोन्ही लागत नाही हेच खरं.