deviant's advantage

charting your life path

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:56:13 +0000

My friend, Amitava, just described a very interesting perspective on charting your life. Imagine your life as the possibilities that appear on a graph with 2 axes where the x-axis refers to doing something in your life which you find fun (usually represented by a job) and the y-axis refers to the amount of material goods you want to acquire in your life. Typically, the more material goods you want to acquire, means that you’ll have to chase for more money and usually means you’ll end up doing something less fun to acquire more money. At the same time, some lucky people end up attaining the “ideal” spot where what they find fun to do also results in acquiring a lot of income. So ultimately the question for everyone is not what the meaning of life is but instead which spot on the graph do you want to occupy.

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weird world - skin color

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:23:40 +0000

We live in a really weird world. I'm sure everyone knows this but I'd like to state and expand this point further. People in developing countries or from low-income backgrounds try to attain fairer skin colour because it's a sign of wealth. In other words, if you're fair-skinned in a low-income setting, you are able to project externally a wealthy image. On the other hand, people from developed countries or wealthier backgrounds always try to get that elusive tan. Why? This is because attaining darker skin color, projects their wealth i.e. their ability to go on vacation by the beaches in far and exotic places. Don't we live in a really weird world? The higher up we evolve in the economic ladder, the more we try act as if we are poor. Why can't we be poor, dark-skinned and cool?

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h1n1 business conspiracy

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:28:06 +0000

could h1n1 have been purposely released by pharmaceutical companies in order to enhance sales from vaccines? check out this article to see the connection: http://mathaba.net/news/?x=621716. The article points to "huge profits generated by companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), based in Britain, which is the manufacturer of the vaccines".

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Innovative social enterprises in Africa

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:16:02 +0000

With our work, we have come across some really interesting social enterprises in Africa:

Omega Schools - Low cost private schools

http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/21181

Mothers2Mothers - Training mothers to reduce HIV transmission to children

http://www.m2m.org/

Apopo - Using rats to clear landmines

http://www.apopo.org/newsite/content/index.htm

Living Goods - Door to door healthcare products

http://www.livinggoods.org/

One Acre Fund - Low cost agricultural inputs for farmers

http://www.oneacrefund.org/

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Government as a business

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:23:38 +0000

I’m sure this topic has come up before, but I’d like to lay it out again - why don’t governments operate like businesses? It seems really simple theoretically. In business, if a customer is unsatisfied with a particular service or product, they either provide feedback, change the provider or stop purchases. Why can’t the same thing occur in a government setting? Why can’t people act like customers of public services (healthcare, security, education etc). We are, after all paying taxes, which is similar to paying for products or services in the business environment. I guess governments can give multiple excuses like the services they provide are cheaper than usual or that they subsidise a lot things which enables us to live at low costs. But aren’t they doing this with our taxes? If we are not satisfied with the services, can’t we lobby for improvements or other providers? On the downside, if governments do act like businesses, if progressive taxes are implemented should people who pay more taxes be better served? However, I do think there are more benefits than problems with governments adopting a more business-like approach and becoming more accountable for their actions, the same way businesses are at least accountable to their customers and shareholder, if not the rest of society and the environment.

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New business for mobile companies

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:01:06 +0000

I was having lunch today at Kinniku in the Ari area in Bangkok and the service was absolutely horrendous. I waited for at least 1 hour before receiving my order. The worst part was that I had made my order slightly before the lunch crowd came in and another table which had made their order after me had received food before me.I got to thinking if mobile companies should redefine their business offering. Weird isn’t it? I started thinking about mobile companies when faced with this problem. Anyway, I was thinking if mobile companies can enable their users to order food through the web and pay for it too. This way, you can order lunch at your favorite restaurant and have it ready before you get there. Additionally, you can pay for your food in your monthly mobile bill.This is a win-win for everyone because the restaurant is more efficient at preparing meals and doesn’t lose money if the customer doesn’t turn up (because you still get charged for your order if you don’t turn up). Customers are happier with fast-served meals and mobile companies get to extend their services and ultimately build revenue.

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Easy broadcasting with Posterous

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:03:03 +0000

Posterous is “da bomb” when it comes to online broadcasting (blogging, twittering etc). I’ve been testing it out with the past few posts and am simply struck by relative ease at which I can post a blog and twit at the same time. Additionally, it handles external content like pictures really easily.

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revolutionising file sharing

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:56:54 +0000

the founders of isohunt have released a new file sharing platform which enhances the community component. check out here: http://hexagon.cc/

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comrade corporation

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:21:24 +0000

A friend of mine recently got into a tiff with another colleague about maintaining the image of a big corporation in the public. The whole issue is essentially about how the media company has to be more careful about how it portrays the corporation during their campaigns and even the most frivolous things matter. If this is not managed carefully, the media company stands to lose the corporation as a client. This leads to something more interesting. We are now more afraid of corporations than governments. We are afraid of the backlash that corporations might unleash simply because of the power they wield. As a result we get really petty in the work environment to manage these issues.

starbucks delivered

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:10:56 +0000

I was at Starbucks in Bangkok recently and noticed that motorcycle taxi riders are ordering complicated Starbucks drinks like “double macchiato caramel”, which is then delivered to customers, mostly in offices across the city. This is an interesting phenomenon where people with higher income levels in the 3rd World no longer want to pick up their own cups of coffee. I know this happens with maids for households chores and other menial labor, but this probably pushing the boundaries of 3rd World labor. The funny part is that when the drink is finally prepared and the barista calls out the complicated mixture by its name, the motorcycle taxi rider is unable to recognise whether that was the drink he ordered and simply stares blankly at the counter. He has to approach the barista to confirm his order everytime a drink is not collected by a customer from the counter.