Mouli's thoughts and musics over two decades
Just viewed a TED talk called “The silent drama of Photography.” Though the talk by Sebastiao Salgado is about a moving story about how he dropped a career as an economist (PhD in economics) and got into photography, how photography almost killed him, how he got back to photography ; the talk has a deep call to action — bring back the forests.
[ted id=1729]
Sebastiao is not a native English speaker (he is Brazilian), but he presents beautifully. At a whole new level. Being a big presentation enthusiast, some of my observations are:
I read this great FastCo article about 4 Bullet points that Seth gave in a talk to Creatives on how to do Design that matters. I personally feel that, these are great points for even non-creatives. For that matter, these are great for anybody who ‘produces’ as part of their job. And yes, I count software lines of code as production. I count efficient management of projects as production too.
The four points are:
I agree with all of these points a 100%. I have actually practiced some of these points in different points in time in my career, and they _work_.
Seth apparently ended the talk with a great quote:
“I have no doubt the people in this room are going to succeed. The question is: Are you going to matter?”
Love the quote.
Read the full article here.
Image courtesy: http://startupquote.com/post/528945569
Wow. Just read this in Fast.co. This is still in concept stage. But if someone ever makes this, I want one. Please Please. A mindbogglingly simple solution. And its portable too.
Just see these images below and wow yourself.
(click to enlarge)
Read the full article here.
All images from the same URL above.
Priest in the local temple (to me): Where is the kid?
Me: Oh, he has gone for his summer vacation. Wife’s parents place – Kumbakonam.
Priest: Ohh, Kumbakonam. Where is this?
Me: Down south. Near Tanjore/Trichy.
Priest (with a hint of recognition of the nearby landmark towns): Ok. Ok. Famous for which temple?
Me: (Flummoxed). Lots of temples. Temple town. But a couple of very big Shiva temples.
I came back home and thought about this. Wow. Temples play a huge role in the culture of India. Sure, he was a priest, and he attaches a religious significance to everything. But on hindsight, I have seen a lot of people ask me this question. Or sometimes, offer it as part of the answer. “I am from Sirkazhi. Famous for its Shiva temple. Also where Gnanasambandhar was born.” “I am from Chidambaram. Where Lord Nataraja dances his cosmic dance. “
Watch this beautiful TED presentation by Prof VIjay Kumar on Autonomous Flying Robots that his team at UPenn have been working on.
The talk itself is awesome. There is one thing that I loved about the way he presented. There are times when Prof Vijay Kumar has to bring in some technical jargon – fifth power equations, and differentials etc. But he does that with aplomb. The slides show the complexity, but he simplifies it while talking. And every time he brings in some complexity, he would spice up the presentation in the next slide using some cool video of the flying robots.
He has the tone of a proud inventor. When he shows some awesome videos or talks about them, you can feel it in his quiet composure. While the audience is clearly wowed, he maintains the pace – as if to say – “This blew you away, wait until you see the next slide”.
And ofcourse a brilliant ending.
THIS IS WATER – By David Foster Wallace from The Glossary on Vimeo.
Beautiful. This is an excerpt of a commencement speech that David Foster Wallace gave – wonderfully adapted into video by the great guys at The Glossary.
Simple explanation on the real value of education.
Watch in full screen. The commentary is also beautifully delivered.
I don’t remember which stage it was. It was just after Marissa Mayer took over the helm of Yahoo. She was being asked – “What is Yahoo!”. It was true. Yahoo was going through a bad identity crisis. Yahoo was tottering aimlessly. It was the poster brand. And now, no one knew what it was doing.
It took a while, but I think Marissa has a repeatable answer to that question. There are two messages that are coming out.
Identify daily habits of Y! users and take them Mobile
Make the daily habits so damn good, that users would love it and be delighted.
I think this is a great mission. Mobile is so ubiquitous now. So much so that, there are people who are forming habits using mobiles. Alarm clocks. Foursquare check-ins. Twitter. Figuring out where to go for lunch. Checking their calendar. Folks cannot do without their mobile for some of these tasks, or should I say habits. If you are able to focus on a handful of Y! apps which have become habits, and make the experience fantastic. That makes a lot of sense.
There is some criticism that, she sounds like a broken record, but I disagree with that completely. If she was not doing that, then the press would be saying that she does not have a cohesive strategy. At the point in time, where Yahoo! is, I think what they need is a well defined cohesive mission. And repeating it a 100,000 times is not a bad thing at all.
Way to go Yahoo!. I have always been a Y! fan. Would hate to see it going down.
Great talk by Sean Wes.
Slideset on Slideshare for those who want to flip through this quickly. Great set of informative, simple, yet very powerful slides. The slides are all black-and-white. They all have the same font. They all have 2-3 bullets or numbers per page. But the message is delivered.
He also gave this talk at Creative South. You can view the video here.
If you have not seen this short film, you should see it. This is the story of grit, determination, and a vision of a man, who despite his humble beginnings and his eventual roaring success, never lost his humility and his roots.
Blurb (in the youtube page):
An eye clinic with 11 beds. A country with 12 million blind. …and one doctor dedicated to a beautiful dream.
Infinite Vision is the story of Dr. V, the legendary eye surgeon from South India who made it his mission to restore sight to the blind and whose work has resulted in one of the world’s most extraordinary models of service delivery.
This film traces the inspiring life journey of a visionary dedicated to serving humanity, outlines the evolution of the Aravind model of eye care and affords glimpses into the spirituality that has guided both for over fifty years in service for sight.
“If you can’t pay them you don’t have to. If you can’t come to them they’ll come to you. Each year they bring light to millions of lives. Their services are world-class, but the spirit that drives them is one of a kind…”