Don't Make Me Think is a book on usability by Steve Krug. It has on all time favorite list of many usability experts to a long time now. However, the book was not available in paperback Indian edition until a few months back.
Now, the book is available from Flipkart at a very reasonable price of Rs 256 and that made it all the more interesting for me to try! With the cash on delivery option, it was a breeze to buy with no fear of online fraud.
About the Book
This book covers the topic of Usability from a common sense perspective. There are no jargons and no complex explanation on the science of usability engineering. If you are anyone who is associated with Web based development, this book is useful. Be it a developer, a designer, a project manager or the CEO of an organization that is planning has a presence on the web, this book will help you to appreciate the importance of simplicity.
What I liked
In very simple terms, the whole concept of usability is laid out in the initial chapters. The 'see for yourself' tests are very innovative. The points that the author makes look so obvious when you re-look sites with a usability perspective.
The testing strategy covered in the penultimate chapter too is extremely practical and very helpful for any organization.
What could be better
This book was last updated in 2005. So the whole world of Web 2.0, Ajax and Social Media picked just about after the publication of the book. There isn't much coverage about how to use the new features like overlays and Ajax calls.
However, the book explains the fundamentals. So, any technology that comes up can always be viewed based on these common sense approaches. For example, the importance of 'You are here' or the 'breadcrumbs' etc is very well explained.
Maybe the author should have a blog or a twitter feed to make things more interactive!
More resources
Author's website: http://www.sensible.com/index.html
Further Reading list: http://www.sensible.com/recreading.html
Usability in-depth: http://www.usability.com/
Price comparison from Indian sites
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, September 06, 2010
Arranging House
A Primer to keep the house clean for married couple
-Akshay Ranganath
The bane of nuclear families is that the onus of keeping the house clean falls entirely on the members of humanity residing in the dwelling. The traditional maid is nowthe mobile carrying super-busy artistic person, who likes to explore her creative talents via the musical symphonoy of dropping vessels or the modern art through the brush-strokes of water on flooring.
So, the responsibility of keeping the dust of the TV or the bathrooms free of new special of bacteria falls on the couple. With a tight work-load across the week, it is typicall the weekends which are the only time available to get this work done. However, cleaning is not as exciting as watching a wife-beating playboy hook up with a comely lady on the telly. And so, dust settles and strange biological creatures have a way in the bathrooms.. Until - until the couple decide to have a fight.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Fights are good. Like the Surf ad goes 'daag ache hai', I say, 'jhagda acha hai'. Whenever the husband says a few words and the wife a few paragraphs, a strange chill descends in the house. Telly is shut down. Banter dies down. A deatly silence descends. This is the perfect moment to pick up the dusty cloth, the vacuum cleaner and attack the unwanted guests in the house.
The gladiators - husband and wife get ready for the battle. The husband picks up the toilet brush in one hand and Harpic/Domex/Mr. Muscle in the other. The wife picks up a broom and an old cloth (typically, the enemies' vest) in the other. The knight enters the realm of the strange bacteria and the queen enters the room of fire. With loud bangs of doors closing, they attack and behold, the house gets clean in a few hours. The battle ground are not chosen randomly. There is a reason for it.
The bathroom happens to be the battle ground for the 'foreign returned'. When you go to 'foreign', there is no maid to clean the house and no dad/mom to help keep the hygiene. It entirely falls on the men of the house. After a futile battle to live like our ancestors, the knights of the house take up the responsibility and valiantly split the work for weekly chores. And thus, the brave 'foreign returned' knight is born.
The queen of the fire is the brave lady who experiments. She goes 'boldly where no one has gone before' and creates dishes that are unheard of - and will never be seen. Cookery dishes born out of telly shows - that almost end up being proof for nuclear fission makes our queen battle hardened to enter the realm of fire - the kitchen.
Once our knight and queen are in - the sheer energy and hate generated in the fight eggs them on to tackle the toughest dust and resilient stains to be tackled in a matter of minutes. After vanquishing the deadly enemies, the victorious soldiers then relax - and the energy spent of cleaning just drains away the hostility. With the house now clean, the couple can then engage in admiration of their work and the fight is completely forgotten.
-Akshay Ranganath
The bane of nuclear families is that the onus of keeping the house clean falls entirely on the members of humanity residing in the dwelling. The traditional maid is nowthe mobile carrying super-busy artistic person, who likes to explore her creative talents via the musical symphonoy of dropping vessels or the modern art through the brush-strokes of water on flooring.
So, the responsibility of keeping the dust of the TV or the bathrooms free of new special of bacteria falls on the couple. With a tight work-load across the week, it is typicall the weekends which are the only time available to get this work done. However, cleaning is not as exciting as watching a wife-beating playboy hook up with a comely lady on the telly. And so, dust settles and strange biological creatures have a way in the bathrooms.. Until - until the couple decide to have a fight.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Fights are good. Like the Surf ad goes 'daag ache hai', I say, 'jhagda acha hai'. Whenever the husband says a few words and the wife a few paragraphs, a strange chill descends in the house. Telly is shut down. Banter dies down. A deatly silence descends. This is the perfect moment to pick up the dusty cloth, the vacuum cleaner and attack the unwanted guests in the house.
The gladiators - husband and wife get ready for the battle. The husband picks up the toilet brush in one hand and Harpic/Domex/Mr. Muscle in the other. The wife picks up a broom and an old cloth (typically, the enemies' vest) in the other. The knight enters the realm of the strange bacteria and the queen enters the room of fire. With loud bangs of doors closing, they attack and behold, the house gets clean in a few hours. The battle ground are not chosen randomly. There is a reason for it.
The bathroom happens to be the battle ground for the 'foreign returned'. When you go to 'foreign', there is no maid to clean the house and no dad/mom to help keep the hygiene. It entirely falls on the men of the house. After a futile battle to live like our ancestors, the knights of the house take up the responsibility and valiantly split the work for weekly chores. And thus, the brave 'foreign returned' knight is born.
The queen of the fire is the brave lady who experiments. She goes 'boldly where no one has gone before' and creates dishes that are unheard of - and will never be seen. Cookery dishes born out of telly shows - that almost end up being proof for nuclear fission makes our queen battle hardened to enter the realm of fire - the kitchen.
Once our knight and queen are in - the sheer energy and hate generated in the fight eggs them on to tackle the toughest dust and resilient stains to be tackled in a matter of minutes. After vanquishing the deadly enemies, the victorious soldiers then relax - and the energy spent of cleaning just drains away the hostility. With the house now clean, the couple can then engage in admiration of their work and the fight is completely forgotten.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Book Quotes: Delivering Happiness by Tony Heish
Some of the best quotes from the book, "Delivering Happiness - A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose" by Tony Hsieh.
For those referencing it, you can use:
Hsieh, T. (2010) Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, And Purpose. New York: Business Plus.
To buy in India, try this: http://isbn.net.in/0446563048.
There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. Morpheas, The Matrix (Introduction)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, they you win. Mahatma Gandhi (p5)
I failed my way to success. Thomas Alva Edison. (p7)
The idea of one day running my company was that I could be creative and eventually live life on my own terms. (p10)
..Looking back, a lot of growth happened that way. We'd just throw ideas against the wall to see if they'd stick, improvise, and make it happen.
Learnings (p65-67)
Networking
I've found that it's more interesting to build relationships with people that are *not* in the business world because they always can offer unique perspectives and insights, and also because those relationship tend to be more genuine. (p82)
Regarding a hotel that he'd opened
..The dishes were named after various dot-com companies. One of the crowd favorites ended up being Akamai Fried Rice. (!!) (p85)
(Hmm.. and then zappos ended up using Akamai! See this presentation:
'A great company is more likely to die of indigestion of too much opportunity than starvation from too little.' - Packard Law (p89)
'Be humble: In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind, there are a few' - Shnryu Suzuki. (p90)
..It was a valuable lessonn. We learned that we should never outsource our core competency. As an e-commerce company, we should have considered warehousing to be our core competency from the beginning. Outsourcing that to a third party and trusting that they would care about our customers as much as we would was one of our biggest mistakes. If we hadn't reacted quickly, it would have eventually destroyed Zappos. (p119)
Interesting obeservation - 1
Would you be comfortable printing everything your employees, customers, and partners have to say about your culture? If not, what would it take for you to get there?'(p139)
Interesting obeservation - 2
There's a lot of buzz these days about 'social media' and 'integration marketing'. As unsexy and low-tech as it may sound, our belief is that the telephone is one of the best branding devices out there. You have customer's undivided attention for five to ten minutes, and if you get the interaction right, what we've found is that the customer remembers the experience for a very long time and tells his or her friends about it.
Too many companies think of their call centre as an expense to minimize. We believe that it's a huge untapped opportunity for most companies, not only because it can result in word-of-mouth marketing, but because of its potential to increase the lifetime value of the customer. (p143)
Interesting obeservation - 3
At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff - like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers - will happen naturally on its own.
We believe that your company's culture and your company's brand are really just two sides of the same coin. The brand may lag in the culture first, but eventually it will catch up. (p152)
Zappos 10 core values
About change
Although change can and will come from all directions, it's important that most of the changes in the company are driven from the bottom-up from the people who are on the front lines, closer to the customers and/or issues. (p163
The problem when someone feels burned out, bored, unchallenged, or stifled by their work is not the job itself but rather the environment and playground rules give nto them to do the job at hand. (p171)
It's important to constantly challenge and stretch yourself, and not be stuck in a job where you don't feel like your are growing and learning. (p173)
Listen!
In any relationship, it's important to be a good listener as well as a good communicator. Open, honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship but, remember that at the end of the day it's not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel that matters the most. In order for soeone to feel good about a relationship, they must know that the ther person truly cares about them, both personally and professionaly. (p176)
Be Humble
While we have grown quickly in the past, we recognize that there are always challenges ahead to tackly. We belive that no matter what happens, we should always be respectful of everyone. (p183)
Amazon & Zappos
Amazon focuses on low prices, vast selection and convenience to make their customres, while Zappos does it through developing relationships, creating personal emotional connections, and delivering high touch ("WOW") customer service. (p218)
No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future. - Author unknows. (p227)
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit - H. S. Truman (p244)
Interesting Further reads:
All are from the Harvard Business Review Blogs
Zappos 10 core values http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/05/how_zappos_infuses_culture_using_core_values.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)
How to treat vendors? Follow the golden rules: http://bit.ly/dC1ZeY
Do more with less, The India Way of Business http://blogs.hbr.org/imagining-the-future-of-leadership/2010/05/the-india-way-of-leading-busin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)
More for Less http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/02/more_for_less_for_more_how_to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)
Jugaad, the new corporate forumla for Corporate America http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/01/jugaad_a_new_growth_formula_fo.html
Price comparison from Indian sites
Presentation from a Zappos exec:
EEC09 - Brian Kalma, Director de User Experience de zappos.com. Ponencia: Extending the customer Experience
For those referencing it, you can use:
Hsieh, T. (2010) Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, And Purpose. New York: Business Plus.
To buy in India, try this: http://isbn.net.in/0446563048.
There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. Morpheas, The Matrix (Introduction)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, they you win. Mahatma Gandhi (p5)
I failed my way to success. Thomas Alva Edison. (p7)
The idea of one day running my company was that I could be creative and eventually live life on my own terms. (p10)
..Looking back, a lot of growth happened that way. We'd just throw ideas against the wall to see if they'd stick, improvise, and make it happen.
Learnings (p65-67)
- Help shape stories that people are telling about you.
- Go for positive expected valye, not what's least risky.
- Don't cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
- Stick to your principles.
- Differenciate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
- Hope is not a good plan.
- Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before.
- Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.
- Don't be cocky. Don't be flashy. There's always someone better than you.
- Share what you've learned with others.
- Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you're trying to do more than just make money.
- Inertia
- I'd realized that whether in poker, in business, or in life, it was wasy to get caught up and engrossed in what I was currently doing, and that made it easy to foget that I always had the option to change tables. Psychologically, it's hard because of all the interia to overcome. Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins. (p69)
Networking
I've found that it's more interesting to build relationships with people that are *not* in the business world because they always can offer unique perspectives and insights, and also because those relationship tend to be more genuine. (p82)
Regarding a hotel that he'd opened
..The dishes were named after various dot-com companies. One of the crowd favorites ended up being Akamai Fried Rice. (!!) (p85)
(Hmm.. and then zappos ended up using Akamai! See this presentation:
'A great company is more likely to die of indigestion of too much opportunity than starvation from too little.' - Packard Law (p89)
'Be humble: In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind, there are a few' - Shnryu Suzuki. (p90)
..It was a valuable lessonn. We learned that we should never outsource our core competency. As an e-commerce company, we should have considered warehousing to be our core competency from the beginning. Outsourcing that to a third party and trusting that they would care about our customers as much as we would was one of our biggest mistakes. If we hadn't reacted quickly, it would have eventually destroyed Zappos. (p119)
Interesting obeservation - 1
Would you be comfortable printing everything your employees, customers, and partners have to say about your culture? If not, what would it take for you to get there?'(p139)
Interesting obeservation - 2
There's a lot of buzz these days about 'social media' and 'integration marketing'. As unsexy and low-tech as it may sound, our belief is that the telephone is one of the best branding devices out there. You have customer's undivided attention for five to ten minutes, and if you get the interaction right, what we've found is that the customer remembers the experience for a very long time and tells his or her friends about it.
Too many companies think of their call centre as an expense to minimize. We believe that it's a huge untapped opportunity for most companies, not only because it can result in word-of-mouth marketing, but because of its potential to increase the lifetime value of the customer. (p143)
Interesting obeservation - 3
At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff - like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers - will happen naturally on its own.
We believe that your company's culture and your company's brand are really just two sides of the same coin. The brand may lag in the culture first, but eventually it will catch up. (p152)
Zappos 10 core values
- Deliver WOW through service
- Embrace and drive change
- Create fun and a little wierdness
- Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
- Pursue growth and learning
- Build open and honest relationship with communication
- Build a postive team and family spirit
- Do more with less (see more in further reading)
- Be passionate and determined
- Be Humble (p154)
About change
Although change can and will come from all directions, it's important that most of the changes in the company are driven from the bottom-up from the people who are on the front lines, closer to the customers and/or issues. (p163
The problem when someone feels burned out, bored, unchallenged, or stifled by their work is not the job itself but rather the environment and playground rules give nto them to do the job at hand. (p171)
It's important to constantly challenge and stretch yourself, and not be stuck in a job where you don't feel like your are growing and learning. (p173)
Listen!
In any relationship, it's important to be a good listener as well as a good communicator. Open, honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship but, remember that at the end of the day it's not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel that matters the most. In order for soeone to feel good about a relationship, they must know that the ther person truly cares about them, both personally and professionaly. (p176)
Be Humble
While we have grown quickly in the past, we recognize that there are always challenges ahead to tackly. We belive that no matter what happens, we should always be respectful of everyone. (p183)
Amazon & Zappos
Amazon focuses on low prices, vast selection and convenience to make their customres, while Zappos does it through developing relationships, creating personal emotional connections, and delivering high touch ("WOW") customer service. (p218)
No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future. - Author unknows. (p227)
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit - H. S. Truman (p244)
Interesting Further reads:
All are from the Harvard Business Review Blogs
Zappos 10 core values http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/05/how_zappos_infuses_culture_using_core_values.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)
How to treat vendors? Follow the golden rules: http://bit.ly/dC1ZeY
Do more with less, The India Way of Business http://blogs.hbr.org/imagining-the-future-of-leadership/2010/05/the-india-way-of-leading-busin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)
More for Less http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/02/more_for_less_for_more_how_to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)
Jugaad, the new corporate forumla for Corporate America http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/01/jugaad_a_new_growth_formula_fo.html
Price comparison from Indian sites
Presentation from a Zappos exec:
EEC09 - Brian Kalma, Director de User Experience de zappos.com. Ponencia: Extending the customer Experience
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Advance Delivery
Book Review: Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion And Purpose by Tony Hsieh
-Akshay Ranganath
On June 7th, the book 'Deliververing Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose' written by its CEO, Tony Hsieh releases. In an experiment of a different word-of-mouth strategy, the author has embarked on a new experiment. This involves sending out complimentary advance copy of the book with the only condition that the blogger blog and tweet about it. I managed to get hold on a copy via Raj(http://niranjani.wordpress.com/) and here I am reviewing a book that is yet to be released!
What I liked?
Unlike many of the books by other CEOs who employ ghost writers, Tony wants to be direct. So, he makes a genuiune attempt as an author. The honesty pays off since most of the points are written as it happened without any jargons that typical management writers would have introduced. What comes across is that the focus on the your customer service, a long term vision and an ability have a bit of fun along the way is what makes Zappos such a great place. There is an abundance of stories on how great the Zappos customer service is (they helped finding nearest pizza outlet when someone tried to test their patience!) The whole book is sprinkled with anecdotes on the fun aspects - it almost makes like the stories could have been part of the book 'Fish'.
The other thing that I liked was the stress on the core competence. In this world of outsourcing, people tend to go overboard. Zappos too tried to have a tie-up with a firm called eLogisitics. With no alignment of objectives, the marriage turned sour and customers were unhappy. The lesson Tony draws saying 'warehoursing is a core competency' in the eCommerce world is quite intuitive and yet not followed so often.
What stood out is the focus on the long term. At one point, Zappos was burning cash and had no prospects for future investment but, Tony and his team were planning on what next as shoes may not be able to provide them all the growth they wanted! It was quite funny to read since Zappos, at that time had no idea on its survival for the next month but, the management was planning on growth and expansion 10 years down the line.
The core value section where Tony explains the famed culture of Zappos is the real gem of the book. It is made more interesting by adding the opinion of various other Zapponians. True to the communication policy of Zappos, the pieces have been written keeping in mind 'be real and use your best judgement'.
And of course, the 'human' face of the company was a very pleasant read. In times of downturn where all we hear is the hush-hush down-sizing, and movies like 'Up-In the Air', the way Zappos seemed to have addressed the issue of reducing workforce is refreshing. The guts of the team to call a spade as a spade and be done with it is laudable. The lack of any pretentious rationalization and open email to the whole company too is a big departure from many other organizations.
Things that could have been better
The lack of a professional help in writing means a few glitches. The core values, although very important have been repeated verbatim multiple times. Maybe, the space could have been saved and more could have been written on the other aspects of Zappos. Although the prime focus is customer service, Zappos has a great platform for online ordering and fulfillment. Not much is written on the software aspect on how the system came into place and what makes the Zappos site so special.
Poker did help Tony in re-thinking his philosophy for life. However, I felt that it consumes more pages that it should have. The lessons from poker were important in the context of the book but the fact that Tony used to prepare, the casinos he used to visit, etc are probably not too relevant.
Finally..
Francis Bacon had said that 'some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.' I am sure that this book falls in the third category, if you are:
And for anyone else who just wants a bunch of quotable quotes. I'll posting my favorite collection soon!
PS: I attended a session by Amazon, the company that has taken over Zappos in 2009. Although the two companies run as seprate brands, the alignment of what both say was quite amazing. In his talk, Brian kept repeating about the importance of customer service, the need to build and maintain customer trust and the need to provide a better customer experience at the cost of potential expansion was truly amazing. The long term approach of Amazon (they have 25 year plans!) was something that literally made my jaws drop!!
Links you can use:
Book Website: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/
Advance copy: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/contact/apply-for-an-advance-copy/
Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048
Buy the book in India: http://isbn.net.in/0446563048
Follow on Twitter: @dhbook
Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results: http://www.amazon.com/Remarkable-Boost-Morale-Improve-Results/dp/0786866020/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275193697&sr=1-1.
Future of eCommerce talk by Brian Valentine, SVP at Amazon: http://rakshay.blogspot.com/2010/05/future-of-ecommerce-seminar-by-brian.html
-Akshay Ranganath
On June 7th, the book 'Deliververing Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose' written by its CEO, Tony Hsieh releases. In an experiment of a different word-of-mouth strategy, the author has embarked on a new experiment. This involves sending out complimentary advance copy of the book with the only condition that the blogger blog and tweet about it. I managed to get hold on a copy via Raj(http://niranjani.wordpress.com/) and here I am reviewing a book that is yet to be released!
What I liked?
Unlike many of the books by other CEOs who employ ghost writers, Tony wants to be direct. So, he makes a genuiune attempt as an author. The honesty pays off since most of the points are written as it happened without any jargons that typical management writers would have introduced. What comes across is that the focus on the your customer service, a long term vision and an ability have a bit of fun along the way is what makes Zappos such a great place. There is an abundance of stories on how great the Zappos customer service is (they helped finding nearest pizza outlet when someone tried to test their patience!) The whole book is sprinkled with anecdotes on the fun aspects - it almost makes like the stories could have been part of the book 'Fish'.
The other thing that I liked was the stress on the core competence. In this world of outsourcing, people tend to go overboard. Zappos too tried to have a tie-up with a firm called eLogisitics. With no alignment of objectives, the marriage turned sour and customers were unhappy. The lesson Tony draws saying 'warehoursing is a core competency' in the eCommerce world is quite intuitive and yet not followed so often.
What stood out is the focus on the long term. At one point, Zappos was burning cash and had no prospects for future investment but, Tony and his team were planning on what next as shoes may not be able to provide them all the growth they wanted! It was quite funny to read since Zappos, at that time had no idea on its survival for the next month but, the management was planning on growth and expansion 10 years down the line.
The core value section where Tony explains the famed culture of Zappos is the real gem of the book. It is made more interesting by adding the opinion of various other Zapponians. True to the communication policy of Zappos, the pieces have been written keeping in mind 'be real and use your best judgement'.
And of course, the 'human' face of the company was a very pleasant read. In times of downturn where all we hear is the hush-hush down-sizing, and movies like 'Up-In the Air', the way Zappos seemed to have addressed the issue of reducing workforce is refreshing. The guts of the team to call a spade as a spade and be done with it is laudable. The lack of any pretentious rationalization and open email to the whole company too is a big departure from many other organizations.
Things that could have been better
The lack of a professional help in writing means a few glitches. The core values, although very important have been repeated verbatim multiple times. Maybe, the space could have been saved and more could have been written on the other aspects of Zappos. Although the prime focus is customer service, Zappos has a great platform for online ordering and fulfillment. Not much is written on the software aspect on how the system came into place and what makes the Zappos site so special.
Poker did help Tony in re-thinking his philosophy for life. However, I felt that it consumes more pages that it should have. The lessons from poker were important in the context of the book but the fact that Tony used to prepare, the casinos he used to visit, etc are probably not too relevant.
Finally..
Francis Bacon had said that 'some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.' I am sure that this book falls in the third category, if you are:
- an entrepreneur and want to understand the amount of sacrifice necessary to stick to your dream. At one point, Tony sold off everything he had to invest in an idea that he firmly believed while the whole world conspired against him.
- a manager trying to recharge the work atmosphere.
- a call center executive. Although compaines tend to think call center as a back-office uninteresting job, Tony provides a very different perspective of why that exact opposite is true. This should keep you motivated!
- a short sighted executive. Zappos made a choice for long-term benefit of customer over short term profitability multiple times. And this paid off. So if you feel like short-cuts, think again.
And for anyone else who just wants a bunch of quotable quotes. I'll posting my favorite collection soon!
PS: I attended a session by Amazon, the company that has taken over Zappos in 2009. Although the two companies run as seprate brands, the alignment of what both say was quite amazing. In his talk, Brian kept repeating about the importance of customer service, the need to build and maintain customer trust and the need to provide a better customer experience at the cost of potential expansion was truly amazing. The long term approach of Amazon (they have 25 year plans!) was something that literally made my jaws drop!!
Links you can use:
Book Website: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/
Advance copy: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/contact/apply-for-an-advance-copy/
Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048
Buy the book in India: http://isbn.net.in/0446563048
Follow on Twitter: @dhbook
Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results: http://www.amazon.com/Remarkable-Boost-Morale-Improve-Results/dp/0786866020/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275193697&sr=1-1.
Future of eCommerce talk by Brian Valentine, SVP at Amazon: http://rakshay.blogspot.com/2010/05/future-of-ecommerce-seminar-by-brian.html
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Future of eCommerce - seminar by Brian Valentine SVP, eCommerce Platfom at Amazon
Yesterda, (May 28, 2010) Amazon hosted a seminar title 'Future of eCommerce' presented by Brian Valentine, SVP of eCommerce Platform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Valentine). The program was held in the gala room of Regency 1 at the ITC Windsor. Attended by a moderate crowd of about 50-70 people the session was quite interesting.
Shamik and I attended the session. Since we're from Akamai and have been working on a few areas related to eCommerce, the presentation itself was not very interesting for us. It was more about the potential of business opportunity, the market size and the avenue for growth in the online retail world. By the time the presentation came to an end, I'd started to get a few doubts that maybe we'd not made a good decision in attending the session. And then things got interesting..
In the Q&A session, two things stood out: Amazon does not consider itself as an online retailer. Rather, it is a technology company. Retail is just one business division. The online platform (or 'plumbing' according to Brian) is what they're trying to build. This is the sprin board from which they can launch a multide of business, markets and expand. The goal for the platform is be able to have a global scale web services, pay as you go model, support any device and if possible, provide a complete business solution and not a piece meal platform support. Web services is the enabler that moves a business from being local to global.
Someone asked a question if users would trust the platform. For example, if a commerce company sells books, would it trust Amazon to be truly deliver the same performance benefits that Amazon, the retailer gets. To this Brian replied rather philosophically that as a platform company, Amazon has to treat each of its customers akin to children. As a parent, Amazon cannot favor one over the other, so seperation of 'church and state' should exist to ensure that the platform is not misused to gain benefits to the reatail business by penalizing the other customers.
One thing that stood out is the focus on the 'trust'. Brian simply said that bulding trust is a very hard thing. Amazon has to repeatedly show that it was true in providing a platform against any biased opinion that Amazon, the retail company would jeopardize or harm the SLAs for other customers. And he said that was a hard task that and trust can be just lost in minutes if there is a misuse. It was quite amazing on the number of times the word 'customer service' and 'customer trust' kept coming up in the whole presentation and the chat we had with other Amazon folks.
Post presentation, we had a brief chat with architects of EC2, the cloud computing platform by Amazon. I asked them that the model of Cloud computing was that Amazon had built huge data centres for handling rush traffic and was offering this excess capacity during the off-peak season. Suppose a retailer were to use the EC2 and has the need for higher scalability, won't they be impacted as their peak traffic would coincide with Amazon's peak traffic time (Christmas, Black Friday). To which, the response was that there are a lot of different geographies where the peak load is time-shifted and many others where the peak traffic is at a totally different time (consider India and US peaks - different festivals etc). And finally, there is a whole bunch of users who just need compute power and not really a guarantee of performance SLA (researchers running batch jobs). It is here that cloud has typically benefited. However, the future would be to ensure guaranteed SLAs for paying customers. A paying retail customer would be no different from Amazon's retiling service.
An eye-opener to us was the abilty of Amazon to bet big. Amazon kept stressing on the importance of web service. We later learnt that the whole of retail platform is designed as Web services and uses the same set of APIs that any other external user can use. Quite amazing that Amazon could take a call to first follow what it spoke of using Web Services and then cannibalizing its retail business by opening the very same APIs to everyone - including potential competition.
Finally, we had a nice dinner talking a very enthusiastic Amazoner. She has been at Amazon for 10 years now and told us some really interesting anecdotes on what it feels like to work at Amazon.
Overall, a very nice Friday evening and a day when Amazon realized that Akamai is a head-on competition in many areas. So watch for the goliath then!
Shamik and I attended the session. Since we're from Akamai and have been working on a few areas related to eCommerce, the presentation itself was not very interesting for us. It was more about the potential of business opportunity, the market size and the avenue for growth in the online retail world. By the time the presentation came to an end, I'd started to get a few doubts that maybe we'd not made a good decision in attending the session. And then things got interesting..
In the Q&A session, two things stood out: Amazon does not consider itself as an online retailer. Rather, it is a technology company. Retail is just one business division. The online platform (or 'plumbing' according to Brian) is what they're trying to build. This is the sprin board from which they can launch a multide of business, markets and expand. The goal for the platform is be able to have a global scale web services, pay as you go model, support any device and if possible, provide a complete business solution and not a piece meal platform support. Web services is the enabler that moves a business from being local to global.
Someone asked a question if users would trust the platform. For example, if a commerce company sells books, would it trust Amazon to be truly deliver the same performance benefits that Amazon, the retailer gets. To this Brian replied rather philosophically that as a platform company, Amazon has to treat each of its customers akin to children. As a parent, Amazon cannot favor one over the other, so seperation of 'church and state' should exist to ensure that the platform is not misused to gain benefits to the reatail business by penalizing the other customers.
One thing that stood out is the focus on the 'trust'. Brian simply said that bulding trust is a very hard thing. Amazon has to repeatedly show that it was true in providing a platform against any biased opinion that Amazon, the retail company would jeopardize or harm the SLAs for other customers. And he said that was a hard task that and trust can be just lost in minutes if there is a misuse. It was quite amazing on the number of times the word 'customer service' and 'customer trust' kept coming up in the whole presentation and the chat we had with other Amazon folks.
Post presentation, we had a brief chat with architects of EC2, the cloud computing platform by Amazon. I asked them that the model of Cloud computing was that Amazon had built huge data centres for handling rush traffic and was offering this excess capacity during the off-peak season. Suppose a retailer were to use the EC2 and has the need for higher scalability, won't they be impacted as their peak traffic would coincide with Amazon's peak traffic time (Christmas, Black Friday). To which, the response was that there are a lot of different geographies where the peak load is time-shifted and many others where the peak traffic is at a totally different time (consider India and US peaks - different festivals etc). And finally, there is a whole bunch of users who just need compute power and not really a guarantee of performance SLA (researchers running batch jobs). It is here that cloud has typically benefited. However, the future would be to ensure guaranteed SLAs for paying customers. A paying retail customer would be no different from Amazon's retiling service.
An eye-opener to us was the abilty of Amazon to bet big. Amazon kept stressing on the importance of web service. We later learnt that the whole of retail platform is designed as Web services and uses the same set of APIs that any other external user can use. Quite amazing that Amazon could take a call to first follow what it spoke of using Web Services and then cannibalizing its retail business by opening the very same APIs to everyone - including potential competition.
Finally, we had a nice dinner talking a very enthusiastic Amazoner. She has been at Amazon for 10 years now and told us some really interesting anecdotes on what it feels like to work at Amazon.
Overall, a very nice Friday evening and a day when Amazon realized that Akamai is a head-on competition in many areas. So watch for the goliath then!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Quotes: Brida by Paulo Coelho
Here are some of the best quotes from the book, 'Brida' by Paulo Coelho.
She had met people who had lost the glow of being alive because they could no longer fight against loneliness and had ended up becoming addicted to it. They were, for most part, people who believed the world to be an undignified, inglorious place, and who spent their evenings and nights talking on and on about the mistakes others had made. They were people whom solitude had made into judges of the world, whose verdicts were scattered to the four winds for whoever cared to listen. (p21)
(Wica) said that didn't understand why so many people chose to spend their whole life destroying paths they didn't even want to follow, instead of following the one path that would lead them somewhere. (p55)
...
She was on the beach with her father, and he asked her to go and see what the temperature of the water was like. She was five years old and glad to be able to help. She went to the edge and dipped in a toe.
'I put my feet in and it's cold,' she told him.
Her father picked her up and carried her down to the water again and, without any warning, threw her in. She was shocked at first, but then laughed out loud at the trick he'd played.
'How's the water?' asked her father.
'It's lovely,' she replied.
'Right, from now on, whenever you want to find out about something, plunge straight in.'
(p96)
...
Even in the most important area of life, love, she had failed to commit herself. After her fist romantic disappointment, she had never again given herself entirely. She feared pain, loss and seperation. These things were inevitable on the path to love, and the only way of avoiding them was by deciding not to take that path at all. In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love. It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life. (p97)
..Love didn't need that kind of renunciation. True love allowed each person to follow their own path, knowing that they would never lose touch with their Soulmate. (p154)
......
'Never stop having doubts. If you ever do, it will be because you've stopped moving forward, and at that point, God will step in and pull the rug from under your feet, because that is His way of controlling is chosen ones, by making sure that always follow their appointed path to the end. If, for any reason, we stop, whether out of complacency, laziness, or out of a mistaken belief that we know enough, He forces us on.'
'On the other hand, you must always be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. Always take the decisions you need to take, even if you're not sure you're doing the right thing. You'll never go wrong, if when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb.. "The Devil is in the detail". Remember that proverb and you'll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.' [Wicca] (p167)
....
'Never be ashamed, he (the Magnus) said. 'Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle'. (p254)
'People give flowers as presents because flowers contain the true meaning of Love. Anyone who tries to possess a flower will have to watch its beauty fading. But if you simply look at a flower in a field, you will keep it forever, because that flower is part of the evening and the sunset and the smell of damp earth and the clouds on the horizon.' [Magnus] (p262)
Price comparison from Indian sites
Monday, March 01, 2010
Old classmate and rants on Social media
Today, out of the blue, a class mate of mine pinged me on Google Chat. As the normal chatters, we started with the mundane stuff of 'howz wrk' and so on. Conversation then moved to stuff about 'how is your wife' and then, suddenly we realized it was all so strange...
Here we were - class mates about 12-13 years back and discussing about wife and work while the last time, we were quibbling about marks and exams! It was rather comical. And it set me off on thinking..
Life had been so fast and confusing. Here I was studying in Pune - a shy boy with an awkward Hindi and now here I am - a 'consultant' working in Bangalore after having been a team lead in Hyderabad and London. Who on earth could have said that this is the path that I'd have taken?
When in Pune, I wanted to get back to Bangalore. Now when I am in Bangalore, I want to meet friends and be in Pune. It is a very strange paradox. Just when you feel you've achieved what you'd wished for, you wish you had the old thing back. The old job (which you weren't happy about), the old college (whose lecturers made life a living night mare), the old school (where you had to work so hard on some really boring subjects) and the list goes on. It's almost like you are moving ahead in time while mentally, you want life to go back something akin to 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
The other thing that sometimes feel so different is the concept of online friends. Its almost like I've won tens of hundreds of 'friends' on Orkut and Facebook sacrificing the few handful of friends that I really had. The job, the internet and bottomless race to get most 'links' on LinkedIn seems to have driven me to maintain the simple human bond of calling up an old friend and just chatting away about everything and nothing. Its almost like talking to friends has become so much context-specific like targeted ads on Google. You call, you ask what you want and you disconnect.
And then, there is marriage. With so much work, online personas and avtars to take care of, marriage takes a back seat during a work-week. So, you focus on wife and try to spend some time. Or as the Americans call, 'quality time' (I can almost feel a dashboard of reports ticking away, measuring each second). Before you can connect to what your spouse is really trying to say, the weekend is up and you are back to work and the Internet. Friends take a back seat.
I don't know if I wanted to crib or protest at the way the Web has taken over the world. But, today I got very irritated removed 'Buzz' from my Gmail. My email is for me to talk to my friends or friend or any one person that I want to talk to. I don't want someone to 'like' what I read or write. I don't want someone to 'share' it with others. My conversations are for me and the people I intend. I just want them to stay in touch. And delete it whenever we want. I don't want it to be etched on the 'Buzz' dashboard for all my followers and followers of followers' for that ephemeral period of time.
And of course, I want to make a resolution to spend more time connection with real people that I know rather than chasing the unseen and unheard of 'links' on LinkedIn!
But then of course, since I've written all this, I don't want it to be obscure. So I shall Blog !!!! :-)
Here we were - class mates about 12-13 years back and discussing about wife and work while the last time, we were quibbling about marks and exams! It was rather comical. And it set me off on thinking..
Life had been so fast and confusing. Here I was studying in Pune - a shy boy with an awkward Hindi and now here I am - a 'consultant' working in Bangalore after having been a team lead in Hyderabad and London. Who on earth could have said that this is the path that I'd have taken?
When in Pune, I wanted to get back to Bangalore. Now when I am in Bangalore, I want to meet friends and be in Pune. It is a very strange paradox. Just when you feel you've achieved what you'd wished for, you wish you had the old thing back. The old job (which you weren't happy about), the old college (whose lecturers made life a living night mare), the old school (where you had to work so hard on some really boring subjects) and the list goes on. It's almost like you are moving ahead in time while mentally, you want life to go back something akin to 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
The other thing that sometimes feel so different is the concept of online friends. Its almost like I've won tens of hundreds of 'friends' on Orkut and Facebook sacrificing the few handful of friends that I really had. The job, the internet and bottomless race to get most 'links' on LinkedIn seems to have driven me to maintain the simple human bond of calling up an old friend and just chatting away about everything and nothing. Its almost like talking to friends has become so much context-specific like targeted ads on Google. You call, you ask what you want and you disconnect.
And then, there is marriage. With so much work, online personas and avtars to take care of, marriage takes a back seat during a work-week. So, you focus on wife and try to spend some time. Or as the Americans call, 'quality time' (I can almost feel a dashboard of reports ticking away, measuring each second). Before you can connect to what your spouse is really trying to say, the weekend is up and you are back to work and the Internet. Friends take a back seat.
I don't know if I wanted to crib or protest at the way the Web has taken over the world. But, today I got very irritated removed 'Buzz' from my Gmail. My email is for me to talk to my friends or friend or any one person that I want to talk to. I don't want someone to 'like' what I read or write. I don't want someone to 'share' it with others. My conversations are for me and the people I intend. I just want them to stay in touch. And delete it whenever we want. I don't want it to be etched on the 'Buzz' dashboard for all my followers and followers of followers' for that ephemeral period of time.
And of course, I want to make a resolution to spend more time connection with real people that I know rather than chasing the unseen and unheard of 'links' on LinkedIn!
But then of course, since I've written all this, I don't want it to be obscure. So I shall Blog !!!! :-)
Quotes: Free - The Future of Radical Price by Chris Anderson
Some of the best quotes from the book. Use the follow below for Harvard style reference.
Anderson, C. (2009) Free – The Future of Radical Price. London: Random House
-Akshay Ranganath
Specialty of free
What Woodward understood was that “free” is a word with an extraordinary ability to reset consumer psychology, create new markets, break old ones and make almost any product more attractive. He also figured that “free” didn't mean profitless. It just meant that the route from product to revenue was indirect, something that would become enshrined in the retian playbook as the concept of “loss leader”. (p10)
(Woodward – introducer of Jell-O)
It is unique quality of the digital age that once something becomes software, it inevitably becomes free – in cost, certainl, and often in price.... The atoms economy is inflationary, while the bits economy is deflationary. (p12)
Humans are wired to understand scarcity better than abundance. Just as we've evolved to ocerreact to threats and danger, one of our survival tacticvs is to focus on the risk that supplies are going to run out. Abundance, from an evolutionary perspective, resolves itself, while scarcity neds to be fought over. (p50)
Just as water will flow downhill, economies flow toward abundance. Products that can become commoditized and cheap tend to do so, and companies seeking profits move upstream in search of scarcities. (p52)
Today's knowledge workers are yesterday's factory workers (and the day before's farmers) moving upstream in search of scarcity. (p54)
Characteristics of Free!
Why do people think “free” means diminished quality in one instance, and not in another? It turns out that our feelings about “free” are relative, not absolute. If something used to cost money and now doesn't we tend to corelate that wil a decline in quality. But if something never cost money, we don't feel the same way. (p56)
So, charging a price, any price, creates a ,emtal barrier that most people won't bother crossing. Free, in contrast, speeds right past that decision, increasing the numner of people who will try something. What Free grants, in exchange for forsaking direct revenues, is the potential of mass sampling. (p61)
As Wharton professor Karthik Hosanagar says, “The demand you get at the price of zero is many times higher than the demand you get at a very low price. Suddenly the demand shoots up in a non-linear fashion. (p62)
Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! We forget the downside. FREE! Gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuble than it really is. Why? I think it's because humans are instrinsically afraid of loss. The real allure of FREE! Is tied to this fear. There's no visible possibility of loss when we choose the item that's not free. Uh-oh, now there's a risk of having made a poor decision – the possibility of loss. And so, given the choice, we go for what is free. (p64)
People often don't care as much about things they don't pay for, and as a result they don't think as much about how they consume them. Free can encourage gluttony, hoarding, thoughtless cnsumption, waste, guilt, and greed. We take stuff because it's there, not necessarily because we want it. Charging a price, even a low price, can encourage much more responsible behavior. (p67)
How does Free work?
Free is the best way to maximize the reach of some product or service, but if that's not what you're ultimately trying to do (Google is not trying to maximize snack food consumption), it can have counterproductive effects. Like every powerful tool, Free must be used carefully lest it cause more harm than good. (p67)
Here's how it works:
1.Build a community around free information and advice on a particlar topic.
2.With that comminity's help, design some products that people want, and return the favor by making the products free in raw form.
3.Let those with more money than time/skill/risk-tolerance buy the polished version of those products. (That may turn out to be almost everyone.)
4.Do it again and again, building a 40 percent profit margin into the products to pay the bills. (p69)
Why does Free happen?
The “triple play” of faster, better, cheaper technologies – processing, storage and badnwidth – all come together online, which is why today you can have free services like YouTube – essentially unlimited amounts of video that you can watch without delay and with increasingly high resotion – that would have been ruinously expensive just a few years ago. (p78)
Definition of 'learning curve': The principle states that the more times a task has been performed, the less time will be required for each subsequent iteration. (p82)
What Kay realized was that a technologist's job is not to figure out what technology is good for. Instead it is to make technology so cheap and easy to use, and ubiquitous that anybody can use it, so that it propagates around the world and into every niche. We, the users, will figure out a what to do with it, because each of us is different; different needs, different ideas, different knowledge, and different ways of interpreting the world. (p88)
Alan Kay: inventor of Mouse
..But the long-term pricing trends are determined by the technology itself – the more there is of a commodity, the cheaper it will be. Say's Law (named after the early-nineteenth century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say) states that “supply creates its own demand,” which is another way of saying that if you make a million times as many transistors, the world will find a use for them. (p93)
Paradoxes drive the things we care about. Marriage is a paradox: I can't live with her, and I can't live without her. Both statements are true. And the dynamics between the two statements is what keeps marriage interesting, among other things.... Paradoxes are opposite of contradictions. Contradictions shut themselves down, but paradoxes keep themselves going, because every time you acknowledge the truth of one side you're going to get caught from behind by the truth on the other side. (p99)
Classic problem of free: It's easier for the newcomers that for incumbents. That's not just because the incumbents have a revenue stream that they're in danger of cannibalizing. It's also that they have a lot more users, and the costs of serving millions of customers can be astronomical. (p115)
Advantage of free economy
..companies can start small and aim high without taking huge financial risks or knowing exactly how they will make money. (p120)
(Google's max strategy) “Take whatever it is you are doing and do it at the max in terms of distribution. The other way of saying that is since marginal cost of distribution is free, you might as well put things everywhere.” (p123)
-Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
The interesting thing about the consumption of complementary products is that they tend to rise in tandem. The more people use the Internet, the better it is for Google's core business. So if Google can use Free to encourage people to spend more time online, it will make more money in the end. (p125)
“Liquidity” is usually thought of as just a financial term, but in truth it applies in any system of connected parties. In technology, it's called “scale”... the Internet, by giving everybody free access to a market of hundreds of millions of people globally, is a liquidity machine. Because it reaches so many people, it can work at participation rates that would be a disaster in the traditional world of non-zero marginal costs. (p129)
Free is disruptive, to be sure, but it tends to leave more efficient markets in its wake. The trick is to ensure you've bet on the winning side. (p131)
Our assumption on Google ads: Magazines are put together by people, and people can be corrupted by money. But Web advertising is placed by software algorithms, and somehow that makes it pure. (p139)
(Question on how companies make money in Free economy) Then how do they make their billions? Scale. Not quite the old joke about losing money with each sale but making it up with volume, but instead losing money with a lot of people and making it back with a relative few. Because these companies pursue the max strategy, that relative few can still amount to thousands of millions of people. (p176)
Motivation for Free
In 1971, at the dawn of the Information Age, the social scientist Herbert Simon wrote:
“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. “ (p180)
(Comparison of our information requirements to Maslow Hierarchy of Needs)
The same sort of pyramid can be applied to information. Once our hunger for basic knowledge and entertainment is satisfied, we become more discriminating about exactly what knowledge and entertainment we want, and in the process learn more about ourselves and what drives us. This ultimately turns many of us from passive consumers to active producers, motivated by the psychic rewards of creating. (p181)
Facebook and MySpace have “friends”. EBay has seller and buyer ratings. Twitter has “followers”, Slashdot has “karma” and so on. In each case, people can build reputational capital and turn it into attention. It is up to each to figure out how to convert that to money, if that's what he or she wants (most don't), but the quantification of attention and reputation is now a global endeavor. It is a market we all now play in, whether we know it or not. Reputation that was once intangible is now increasingly becoming concrete. (p184)
Why do we participate in Free economy?
In short, doing things we like without pay often makes us happier that the work we do for a salary. You will have eat, but as Maslow showed, there is more to life than that. The opportunity to contribute in a way that is both creative and appreciated is exactly the sort of fulfillment that Maslow privileged above all other aspirations, and what many jobs so seldom provide. (p189)
(Difference of piracy in online and offline world)
Pirated digital products are as good as the originals. But pirated physical products usually aren't. (p204)
Why piracy happens?
Piracy happens when the marketplace realizes that the marginal cost of reproduction and distribution of a product is significantly lower than the price asked. In other words, the only thing propping up the price is the law protecting intellectual property. If you break the law, the price can fall, sometimes all the way to zero. (p228)
Buy Book: Within India
Anderson, C. (2009) Free – The Future of Radical Price. London: Random House
-Akshay Ranganath
Specialty of free
What Woodward understood was that “free” is a word with an extraordinary ability to reset consumer psychology, create new markets, break old ones and make almost any product more attractive. He also figured that “free” didn't mean profitless. It just meant that the route from product to revenue was indirect, something that would become enshrined in the retian playbook as the concept of “loss leader”. (p10)
(Woodward – introducer of Jell-O)
It is unique quality of the digital age that once something becomes software, it inevitably becomes free – in cost, certainl, and often in price.... The atoms economy is inflationary, while the bits economy is deflationary. (p12)
Humans are wired to understand scarcity better than abundance. Just as we've evolved to ocerreact to threats and danger, one of our survival tacticvs is to focus on the risk that supplies are going to run out. Abundance, from an evolutionary perspective, resolves itself, while scarcity neds to be fought over. (p50)
Just as water will flow downhill, economies flow toward abundance. Products that can become commoditized and cheap tend to do so, and companies seeking profits move upstream in search of scarcities. (p52)
Today's knowledge workers are yesterday's factory workers (and the day before's farmers) moving upstream in search of scarcity. (p54)
Characteristics of Free!
Why do people think “free” means diminished quality in one instance, and not in another? It turns out that our feelings about “free” are relative, not absolute. If something used to cost money and now doesn't we tend to corelate that wil a decline in quality. But if something never cost money, we don't feel the same way. (p56)
So, charging a price, any price, creates a ,emtal barrier that most people won't bother crossing. Free, in contrast, speeds right past that decision, increasing the numner of people who will try something. What Free grants, in exchange for forsaking direct revenues, is the potential of mass sampling. (p61)
As Wharton professor Karthik Hosanagar says, “The demand you get at the price of zero is many times higher than the demand you get at a very low price. Suddenly the demand shoots up in a non-linear fashion. (p62)
Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! We forget the downside. FREE! Gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuble than it really is. Why? I think it's because humans are instrinsically afraid of loss. The real allure of FREE! Is tied to this fear. There's no visible possibility of loss when we choose the item that's not free. Uh-oh, now there's a risk of having made a poor decision – the possibility of loss. And so, given the choice, we go for what is free. (p64)
People often don't care as much about things they don't pay for, and as a result they don't think as much about how they consume them. Free can encourage gluttony, hoarding, thoughtless cnsumption, waste, guilt, and greed. We take stuff because it's there, not necessarily because we want it. Charging a price, even a low price, can encourage much more responsible behavior. (p67)
How does Free work?
Free is the best way to maximize the reach of some product or service, but if that's not what you're ultimately trying to do (Google is not trying to maximize snack food consumption), it can have counterproductive effects. Like every powerful tool, Free must be used carefully lest it cause more harm than good. (p67)
Here's how it works:
1.Build a community around free information and advice on a particlar topic.
2.With that comminity's help, design some products that people want, and return the favor by making the products free in raw form.
3.Let those with more money than time/skill/risk-tolerance buy the polished version of those products. (That may turn out to be almost everyone.)
4.Do it again and again, building a 40 percent profit margin into the products to pay the bills. (p69)
Why does Free happen?
The “triple play” of faster, better, cheaper technologies – processing, storage and badnwidth – all come together online, which is why today you can have free services like YouTube – essentially unlimited amounts of video that you can watch without delay and with increasingly high resotion – that would have been ruinously expensive just a few years ago. (p78)
Definition of 'learning curve': The principle states that the more times a task has been performed, the less time will be required for each subsequent iteration. (p82)
What Kay realized was that a technologist's job is not to figure out what technology is good for. Instead it is to make technology so cheap and easy to use, and ubiquitous that anybody can use it, so that it propagates around the world and into every niche. We, the users, will figure out a what to do with it, because each of us is different; different needs, different ideas, different knowledge, and different ways of interpreting the world. (p88)
Alan Kay: inventor of Mouse
..But the long-term pricing trends are determined by the technology itself – the more there is of a commodity, the cheaper it will be. Say's Law (named after the early-nineteenth century French economist Jean-Baptiste Say) states that “supply creates its own demand,” which is another way of saying that if you make a million times as many transistors, the world will find a use for them. (p93)
Paradoxes drive the things we care about. Marriage is a paradox: I can't live with her, and I can't live without her. Both statements are true. And the dynamics between the two statements is what keeps marriage interesting, among other things.... Paradoxes are opposite of contradictions. Contradictions shut themselves down, but paradoxes keep themselves going, because every time you acknowledge the truth of one side you're going to get caught from behind by the truth on the other side. (p99)
Classic problem of free: It's easier for the newcomers that for incumbents. That's not just because the incumbents have a revenue stream that they're in danger of cannibalizing. It's also that they have a lot more users, and the costs of serving millions of customers can be astronomical. (p115)
Advantage of free economy
..companies can start small and aim high without taking huge financial risks or knowing exactly how they will make money. (p120)
(Google's max strategy) “Take whatever it is you are doing and do it at the max in terms of distribution. The other way of saying that is since marginal cost of distribution is free, you might as well put things everywhere.” (p123)
-Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
The interesting thing about the consumption of complementary products is that they tend to rise in tandem. The more people use the Internet, the better it is for Google's core business. So if Google can use Free to encourage people to spend more time online, it will make more money in the end. (p125)
“Liquidity” is usually thought of as just a financial term, but in truth it applies in any system of connected parties. In technology, it's called “scale”... the Internet, by giving everybody free access to a market of hundreds of millions of people globally, is a liquidity machine. Because it reaches so many people, it can work at participation rates that would be a disaster in the traditional world of non-zero marginal costs. (p129)
Free is disruptive, to be sure, but it tends to leave more efficient markets in its wake. The trick is to ensure you've bet on the winning side. (p131)
Our assumption on Google ads: Magazines are put together by people, and people can be corrupted by money. But Web advertising is placed by software algorithms, and somehow that makes it pure. (p139)
(Question on how companies make money in Free economy) Then how do they make their billions? Scale. Not quite the old joke about losing money with each sale but making it up with volume, but instead losing money with a lot of people and making it back with a relative few. Because these companies pursue the max strategy, that relative few can still amount to thousands of millions of people. (p176)
Motivation for Free
In 1971, at the dawn of the Information Age, the social scientist Herbert Simon wrote:
“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. “ (p180)
(Comparison of our information requirements to Maslow Hierarchy of Needs)
The same sort of pyramid can be applied to information. Once our hunger for basic knowledge and entertainment is satisfied, we become more discriminating about exactly what knowledge and entertainment we want, and in the process learn more about ourselves and what drives us. This ultimately turns many of us from passive consumers to active producers, motivated by the psychic rewards of creating. (p181)
Facebook and MySpace have “friends”. EBay has seller and buyer ratings. Twitter has “followers”, Slashdot has “karma” and so on. In each case, people can build reputational capital and turn it into attention. It is up to each to figure out how to convert that to money, if that's what he or she wants (most don't), but the quantification of attention and reputation is now a global endeavor. It is a market we all now play in, whether we know it or not. Reputation that was once intangible is now increasingly becoming concrete. (p184)
Why do we participate in Free economy?
In short, doing things we like without pay often makes us happier that the work we do for a salary. You will have eat, but as Maslow showed, there is more to life than that. The opportunity to contribute in a way that is both creative and appreciated is exactly the sort of fulfillment that Maslow privileged above all other aspirations, and what many jobs so seldom provide. (p189)
(Difference of piracy in online and offline world)
Pirated digital products are as good as the originals. But pirated physical products usually aren't. (p204)
Why piracy happens?
Piracy happens when the marketplace realizes that the marginal cost of reproduction and distribution of a product is significantly lower than the price asked. In other words, the only thing propping up the price is the law protecting intellectual property. If you break the law, the price can fall, sometimes all the way to zero. (p228)
Buy Book: Within India
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Visit to Singapore
Day 1 - Jan 9th, 2010
We visited the Sentosa. We started from the train ride across the sea via a train ride from the Vivo City rail.
First we visited the Merlion. Merlion is the symbol of Singapore combining the regality of a lion and the wonders of sea. It has the head of a lion and the rail of a mermain – hence named Marlion. There is a manufactured myth woven around it. So the place we visited is a huge Merlion statue. We reach its mouth and the head to get a view of the whole city.
Next we took the luge and sky rides. Luge ride is a small cart like vehicle that just has brakes. We go across a lot of criss crossing track – and it feels more like go-carting, except this vehicle has no fuel or engine needs. Sky ride is a rope-ay trip across the island. It is fun. For (newly?) married couple it is a nice time to get close to each other and take a few snaps.
We then took the Tiger Sky ride. This is a huge 50 m tower with a circular glass-covered lift. The lift takes you to the top and rotates slowly during the ascent and descent to give a panoramic view of the whole place. Quite a nice ride that sort of show-cases how beautiful the Sentosa Island looks and the greenary of the island.
We then had pizza and onion rings for lunch.
Next stop was some stunning 4-D movies. Although we had to wait a lot, these movies were worth the wait. The first movie was a spoof of the Pirates of the Carribean. In this 4-D movie bees attack you, bats spit at you and water keeps splashing at you in 3-D as part of plot; and in 4-D your seats tilt, get bumped and spray water at you. So whenever someone falls in water, you get sprayed! Feels like you're the one who really shot the whole move.
The next 4-D movie was the 'Extreme Log Ride'. You undertake a journey of a log, as it is cut down and transported to a mill. However, it is not as lame as it sounds. This particular log goes through a contraption of water ducts and pathways that would be put the best roller-coaster to shame! We were left with a hoarse throat after all the 'whoooos' that we'd been shouting.
The final stop was towards the Siloso Point. There was supposed to be a dolphin show but we just missed it by a whisker. The last show was at 5:30 pm. Due to map confusing us, we reached and 5:37 pm. And we were locked out :-( However, we proceeded towards the Sentosa point.Sentosa point itself is a very small islet – about the size of a two or three stadiums. This islet is connected to Sentosa island by a ropeway. Significantly, this is the southermost point on the continental Asia. At this place, the scenary is stunning – the vista of the setting sun, the tinkling of the harbored ships and the sensuos curves of coconut trees jutting out into the ocean made it a refreshing sight and a photographers' paradise. After shooting lots of photos, we made it back the Sentosa park.
The final destination was the “Songs of the Sea” show. Its a story. Its a story of how a boy sings his song and wakes up the power in fire, the spark in light, the liveliness of water and ends up waking a cursed pricness from her sleep. The only twist is that this story is told as a musical combined with water fountain and laser show on the water fountain and controlled fires and fire-crackers. To say that it was an incredible sight itself is an understatement. I must say that Singapore should have a law that says that any visitor who has not visited the Songs of the Sea should be rejected his immigration check and made to return back!
And then, we return home. So that was our first day in Singapore.
Day 2 - Jan 10th, 2010
On Day 2, the number of individual places we visited was less, just 2 in fact. We visited the Jurong Bird Park and the Night Safari.
From home, we first went to the Jurong Bird Park. This is a collection of thousands of birds spanning multiple geographies and temperature zones. Birds ranging from equitorial zones to the arctic zone are protected, bred and displayed in this park.
First thing in the park was our mandatory 'hello' to the penguins. There was a whole bunch of king penguins and the Robbin Williams type (from Happy Feet) penguins ambling about in the enclosure. Being specially protected, the enclosure for penguins is closed and sealed. Temperature must be sub-zero as we saw snow on the ground and the penguins seemed to be having a good time.
Next was the photo-op. Right near the entrance is a bunch of some amazingly colorful parrots, parakeets and cokatoos. You stand in-front of them, hold a pair of birds in one hand, you spouse in the other and then smile for the cameras :-) The park itself has photographers who take a snap and instantaneously, the photo gets downloaded onto a PC nearby. The operator there using Kodak Editing software corrects the photo and presents you 3 options. You pick one and the format of photo – whether it is a photo for a frame – or a photo for glass ball filled with shiny stuff. So, we picked the shiny globe as our momemto and the visit to the park is preserved as a wonderful show-piece for us.
Falmingos were the next birds on our route. The Bird Park guys call the flamingos as the super-model of birds. They could easily give a run to any of our top super-models for their long slender legs and graceful walk!
Then came the pelicans. We were hammered with the info that 'the beak of pelicans is so large that it can hold upto 13 litres of water'. There are 8 different varieties of pelicans, and one – the Chilean pelican is the only one not in the park. We saw the pelicans being fed – and man they gobble up fish like crazy.
From the pelicans it was time to watch the bird feeding show. Here the park guys feed the birds and while they are eating, show you the different types of birds and explain their characteristics. It is a wonderful mode of teaching for children – they get to see the actual birds in their fully radiant colors while learning about them. You even get to feed the birds for only S$ 3!
Then it was time to see the 'Birds and Buddies' show. Here, the birds proved that they weren't just bird brains. They showed that they have a lot of intelligence and can do some cool stuff! There was a basketball match between two parrots (our team parrot won!); flew threw the hoops; collected money from audience and then returned it and finally a parrot sang 'Happy Birthday to you!'. Simply amazing.
Then it was time to go back to the penguins to watch them being fed. These guys are more crazy for fish than pelicans. When the person in charge carried a bucket of fish, the penguins would walk like kids behind an adult who is distributing chocolates – tugging at him, crowding around him, beseeching him and finally stealing from him :-) When the fish deluded them and landed in the water, penguins seemed to take the plunge and swim like it was an F1 race. And they are fast!
The final show in the park was the Birds of Prey show. It was time to see the action of some of the fastest and sharpest birds – the eagles, vultures and the kites. One of the task for kites was to catch pieces of meat that were shot from a catalpult and these kites would just grab it off! The other task was to steal meat from the presenter's plate while he tried to not allow the birds to take away his meat. No matter how hard the presenter tried, within three passes one of kite would steal away the meat. They're simply too swift.
And then we bid aidue to the bird park.
Next destination was the Night Safari.
At Night Safari, a whole artifical forest cover has been created. It is a reserve to house some of the most endangered species as well as to provide an opportunity for people to see this animals in as natural environment as possible. The park opens only at 7pm. So, no point in going here before 6:30.
At 7 pm, there is a tribal dance show. These guys are amazing – they throw flames, shoot darts and fool audience to their heart's desire. And the audience just love them for it. In our show, they made fooled a lady to believe she could shoot darts (when she hadn't shot any dart at all) and fooled a guy to believe he could swallow flame. We then took a huge walk around the park. Its called a tiger trail and goes around the enclosure for various animals. There's a lot of animals to see as well – the hyneas, foxes, wolves, etc. The highlight though was the flying squirrel. It can shame any trapeeze artist by miles. We saw a squirrel jump off from a height of about 20 m to a tree of about 4 m and a distance of about 5 m. And it executed this jump in the blink of the eye. Its eyesight must have been fantabulous to first spot the right spot for landing and jumping with precise speed and thrust to exactly land on this spot. An awesome sight indeed.
After the trail walk, we went to see the night show. It is a show where some small animals do stunts – like otters showing you how to recycle (throw cans and bottles in appropriate bins) etc. Wouldn't say that it is the greatest show but worth a watch. The only issue I had – the presenter screams and that's quite painful to listen after such a weary day.
Finally, we took the tram ride. The electric tram goes round the safari and once more you a lot more animals. After about 40 minutes you're back and ready to hog a lot of dinner. There's an Indian tandoor place serving a nice buffet or biryani. We had biryani and naan. Then we came back home and crashed into bed. Thus ended our day two at Singapore.
Day 3 – Jan 11th 2009
The third day in Singapore was a bit more relaxed. We took time to eat and get ready, starting on trip by only at 2 pm.
We took the MRT/LRT trains and reached Clarke Quay. This place, for those who have visited UK is very similar to the City of Westminster and the walk along Thames. Clarke Quay is beside the river Singapore. The river, the wide bridges, the amphitheatre and the parliament house that looks like St. Paul’s’ Cathedral is very reminiscent of the land of the queen.
Going further is the Asia Civilization Museum (ACM). Since we didn’t know much about it, we decided to take a chance and visit it. It was a bit of mistake! The museum is well organized and maintained. But, it is not a place to be, if you are planning to walk a lot. The multiple galleries depicting the history of China, India, South-East Asia, Singapore and tribal arts is quite taxing on the legs. By the time we completed the museum, it took us about an hour and tired out my wife completely. At S$ 15 the tickets too aren’t that cheap. So, unless you’re interested in history and culture, my suggestion is – give it a skip. Take pictures of the building from outside but, don’t go in.
We then walked across the bridge to see the Merlion. This Merlion is different from the one we visited on day 1 at Sentosa. The Merlion here is smaller. It has a fountain in its mouth and the water drains into the River Singapore. Located just beside some really tall buildings and the 5 star hotel, it looks quite photogenic and tourists throng here for the exact same reason.
We then had a coffee at the under-the-bridge Starbucks and passed through the food joints. You get lots and lots of varieties of cuisines ranging from Malaysian, Singaporean to Indian, Chinese, and even Lebenese. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry at all – and had to forgo the food. Warning: For veggies who are queasy around non-veg, this place may look a bit gross. You can see live fresh-water crabs and lobsters in tanks and grilled duck with the recognizable beaks and bodies. So, be careful!
There is a boat ride around the river just like London. However, I did not find it as interesting. There is not much of history around the river and the guide is actually a recorded voice. In London, it is a live guide who makes the experience so very lively by his jokes and pranks. And there is enough history, treachery, blood, art and architecture to explain on an hour long trip. Here, the ride lasts about 30 minutes, most of which is spent in-between the guide’s pauses. My suggestion: If you are on a short budget, give the boat ride too a miss. Instead, just walk around and you can cover the whole path in just about an hour.
The tall buildings are quite majestic and sight and look quite amazing when lit. Unfortunately by the end of boat ride, we were all way too tired to stand and had to return back before the lights went on. So, we’re planning a trip again tomorrow.. so watch out for more…
On our way back home, we visited a small shopping mall at Fajah. Here we had a traditional Singaporean snack – the Kaaya. It tastes like toasted bread and butter. It has this traditional spread that is a bit sweet and salty applied on break – and it tasted quite good.
Day 4 - Jan 12th
Day 4 was a bit more relaxed. We had a lazy breakfast, an early lunch and a small cat-nap before starting on our tour. I also had a lot of stuff to study for the sake of my MBA seminar and this time-off came in handy.
First we visited the China Town. This is the area in Singapore where early Chinese, mainly the workers at the docks used to stay. The area used to be teeming with Chinese labourers, coupled with authentic food joints, shops – in effect making it replica of China itself. Even though the residents are now more integrated into the society, the area still retains its authentic Chinese charm. The shops are all very colourful, selling wares ranging from small miniature statues to T-Shirts, electronic items and a lot of knick-knacks for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Within the Little China is a Mariamman temple. Its gopuram was confused for a pagoda and thus, a lane called Pagoda Street exists but, no real Pagoda is present at all.
The next place we visited is the Suntec City / Citilink Mall. This is a massive underground mall, housing thousands of shops as well as a huge fountain that was once considered the biggest fountain on earth. Called the Fountain of Wealth, this fountain is designed based on Hindu tradition. There is an enclosure which is supposed to be in the form of a mandala. Within it, the fountain operates. Within the mandala, there is a small fountain. Belief has it that if you wish for something while going-round the fountain twice, the wish comes true. So, we too took a shot, made a wish and did our three pradakshina. At 7 pm in the evening, this fountain turns really colourful and interesting. There is a laser show on the fountain. Starting with some color display, it progresses to laser pattern show and concludes with people’s message appearing on the fountain. It is nice to see but, no as great as the ‘Songs of the Sea’ show that I described in Day 1.
Lastly, we went into the City Link Mall and had a nice sumptuous Indian dinner at Pangot, located on the top floor of the underground mall. The food was truly Indian in taste and after the dinner, we came back home.
Within the mall, there are a lot of places to eat – if you are a non-vegetarian and crave sea-food. For veggies like us though it is a bit tough. At most places, there is the distinct smell of sea-food that sort of makes you uneasy and lose out on any appetite for eating. And so, finally you are left with at eating in an Indian joint!
Day 5 - Jan 13th
This is the last my last full day in Singapore. So, it felt like we had to complete visiting all palces on this one day!
So, we started late :-) We started at around 2 pm and reached Marina Bay station. We were planning to visit the Marina Barrage. This is a fresh water reservoir, completed as recently as the year 2007. It is one of the first water reservoir right in the heart of any city. And it is an engineering marvel. This barrage, at a size of 1/6th of whole of Singaopore has been planned to store water for fulfilling the requirements till about 2030. It was built across the sea and water was gradually drained out so that the saltiness was removed.
The barrage operates to keep the water level constant despite the high and low tides. During a low tide, the 8-10 gates are closed so that water does not flow out to the sea when the sea water level is lower than the water level in the barrage. During a high tide, when the water level in the sea is higher than the water in the barrage, the same gates keep the salt water out. In case of heavy rains during the tides, different mechanisms are in place to ensure the water level stays constant and no flooding occurs.
Until a year or two, this place was barred for tourists and general visitors. Later on, the minister of environment decided that the best way to educate and encourage people to be more 'green' opened up the barrage for public and for water sports. There is an exhibition of sustainable energy, the history of the Singapore river, the construction of the barrage and finally a model that explains the working of the barrage.
Oh yes, we walked like stupid people all the way from the Marina Bay station to Marina Barrage. This distance is easily about 3-5 kms. So, please take a bus right outside station – or take a cab, if you can find one. But, don't ever plan to walk. It is not worth it. Luckily for us, there were no rains during our walk. However, the moment we entered the barrage, it started to rain!
Next, we took a train ride to – surprise surpise.. Little India :-) Of course, we weren't missing India so much. However, we just wanted to buy a few electronic items and the best shop around is the Mustfa Centre. So, we reached Little India. As per the name, this place is like India – chaotic, noisy and festive – with decoration for Pongal on all the roads.
After all the walk on Marina Barrage, we were hngry. So, we had to make a mandatory visit to Saravanaa Bavan. Yes, there is one in Singapore too. These guys should have some sort of loyalty programme. People who have eaten in more than one country at Saravanaa Bavan get 10% off :-) And I'd qualify (India, UK and Singapore hehehehe).
We then entered the 'Alice in Wonderland' type of a hole of Mustafa. It is a 7 storey complex with a building that spans across three cross-roads and could fill up a cricket ground or more. So it is BIG. And the best part is people inside actually know their way around and the place where products are displayed. We were thoroughly confused on where to get mobiles – and a lady selling herbal medicine on basement 2 told us that it would be available at floor 1, front, right side. Amazing!
We bought a Nokia 6630 for Vinaya and a Nokia 5130 XpressMusci for Vinaya's brother. And then, a neat little 1 TB external USB drive for myself :-) And I was 30 K lesser on my bank account. This place is injurious to health. The products displayed are so enticing that you'd don't really think about it and when the final bill arrives, it is a shocker.
We then ate at a neary Ananda Bhavan returant. I had a 'Plain Masala Thosai'. I was not in a mood to eat 'Medu Vadai'. And then, we had butter-milk and started back for home. My last long trip in Singapore came to an end. Tomorrow, I am off to Malaysia.
Day 6 – Singapore to Malaysia
So my trip to Singapore is done. And for the first time in my life, I have to leave my wife behind and travel alone to a new country. Its not for long – just for two days. I know. But, still there is that strange feeling of holloness in stomach that I can't get rid off.
On the last day in Singapore, we've not planned any trips. I am just at home, coping the images and figuring out a method to use the new external hard drive. Time just does not seem to move. I've done the copy, the recopy, packing, weighing and re-packing. Finally, I get bored have lunch and head out to the airport. I'm left my wife behind. I was planning to take a walk with her to catch the taxi. But fate had other plans. I get a taxi right after we get out of the elevator! The drive takes is astonishingly fast and I am in airport in just 25 minutes. As everything in Singapore, the budget terminal is very clean. With nothing to do, I take out the Micheal Crichton book, “Pirate Latitudes” and finish more than half the book before the boarding call is announced.
The flight takes off. I turn a page or two. I start filling out the immigration form for Malaysia and the pilot announces that the plane is ready for landing! The flight journey from Singapore to Malaysia is hardly 30 minutes. The taxiing on the runways, the pre-flight checks and the post-landing delays all add up to an hour. It must be the shortest flight that I've ever made!
Within the airport, there are taxi counters. I just took them. The taxi driver does not know English or Tamil. And I don't know Malay. So, I tell him the address. He tells me his understanding of the address. We go. He takes me straight to a University. I feel happy. At least someone still thinks I am quite young :-)
Rest of the story of Malaysia in the next blog :-)
We visited the Sentosa. We started from the train ride across the sea via a train ride from the Vivo City rail.
First we visited the Merlion. Merlion is the symbol of Singapore combining the regality of a lion and the wonders of sea. It has the head of a lion and the rail of a mermain – hence named Marlion. There is a manufactured myth woven around it. So the place we visited is a huge Merlion statue. We reach its mouth and the head to get a view of the whole city.
Next we took the luge and sky rides. Luge ride is a small cart like vehicle that just has brakes. We go across a lot of criss crossing track – and it feels more like go-carting, except this vehicle has no fuel or engine needs. Sky ride is a rope-ay trip across the island. It is fun. For (newly?) married couple it is a nice time to get close to each other and take a few snaps.
We then took the Tiger Sky ride. This is a huge 50 m tower with a circular glass-covered lift. The lift takes you to the top and rotates slowly during the ascent and descent to give a panoramic view of the whole place. Quite a nice ride that sort of show-cases how beautiful the Sentosa Island looks and the greenary of the island.
We then had pizza and onion rings for lunch.
Next stop was some stunning 4-D movies. Although we had to wait a lot, these movies were worth the wait. The first movie was a spoof of the Pirates of the Carribean. In this 4-D movie bees attack you, bats spit at you and water keeps splashing at you in 3-D as part of plot; and in 4-D your seats tilt, get bumped and spray water at you. So whenever someone falls in water, you get sprayed! Feels like you're the one who really shot the whole move.
The next 4-D movie was the 'Extreme Log Ride'. You undertake a journey of a log, as it is cut down and transported to a mill. However, it is not as lame as it sounds. This particular log goes through a contraption of water ducts and pathways that would be put the best roller-coaster to shame! We were left with a hoarse throat after all the 'whoooos' that we'd been shouting.
The final stop was towards the Siloso Point. There was supposed to be a dolphin show but we just missed it by a whisker. The last show was at 5:30 pm. Due to map confusing us, we reached and 5:37 pm. And we were locked out :-( However, we proceeded towards the Sentosa point.Sentosa point itself is a very small islet – about the size of a two or three stadiums. This islet is connected to Sentosa island by a ropeway. Significantly, this is the southermost point on the continental Asia. At this place, the scenary is stunning – the vista of the setting sun, the tinkling of the harbored ships and the sensuos curves of coconut trees jutting out into the ocean made it a refreshing sight and a photographers' paradise. After shooting lots of photos, we made it back the Sentosa park.
The final destination was the “Songs of the Sea” show. Its a story. Its a story of how a boy sings his song and wakes up the power in fire, the spark in light, the liveliness of water and ends up waking a cursed pricness from her sleep. The only twist is that this story is told as a musical combined with water fountain and laser show on the water fountain and controlled fires and fire-crackers. To say that it was an incredible sight itself is an understatement. I must say that Singapore should have a law that says that any visitor who has not visited the Songs of the Sea should be rejected his immigration check and made to return back!
And then, we return home. So that was our first day in Singapore.
Day 2 - Jan 10th, 2010
On Day 2, the number of individual places we visited was less, just 2 in fact. We visited the Jurong Bird Park and the Night Safari.
From home, we first went to the Jurong Bird Park. This is a collection of thousands of birds spanning multiple geographies and temperature zones. Birds ranging from equitorial zones to the arctic zone are protected, bred and displayed in this park.
First thing in the park was our mandatory 'hello' to the penguins. There was a whole bunch of king penguins and the Robbin Williams type (from Happy Feet) penguins ambling about in the enclosure. Being specially protected, the enclosure for penguins is closed and sealed. Temperature must be sub-zero as we saw snow on the ground and the penguins seemed to be having a good time.
Next was the photo-op. Right near the entrance is a bunch of some amazingly colorful parrots, parakeets and cokatoos. You stand in-front of them, hold a pair of birds in one hand, you spouse in the other and then smile for the cameras :-) The park itself has photographers who take a snap and instantaneously, the photo gets downloaded onto a PC nearby. The operator there using Kodak Editing software corrects the photo and presents you 3 options. You pick one and the format of photo – whether it is a photo for a frame – or a photo for glass ball filled with shiny stuff. So, we picked the shiny globe as our momemto and the visit to the park is preserved as a wonderful show-piece for us.
Falmingos were the next birds on our route. The Bird Park guys call the flamingos as the super-model of birds. They could easily give a run to any of our top super-models for their long slender legs and graceful walk!
Then came the pelicans. We were hammered with the info that 'the beak of pelicans is so large that it can hold upto 13 litres of water'. There are 8 different varieties of pelicans, and one – the Chilean pelican is the only one not in the park. We saw the pelicans being fed – and man they gobble up fish like crazy.
From the pelicans it was time to watch the bird feeding show. Here the park guys feed the birds and while they are eating, show you the different types of birds and explain their characteristics. It is a wonderful mode of teaching for children – they get to see the actual birds in their fully radiant colors while learning about them. You even get to feed the birds for only S$ 3!
Then it was time to see the 'Birds and Buddies' show. Here, the birds proved that they weren't just bird brains. They showed that they have a lot of intelligence and can do some cool stuff! There was a basketball match between two parrots (our team parrot won!); flew threw the hoops; collected money from audience and then returned it and finally a parrot sang 'Happy Birthday to you!'. Simply amazing.
Then it was time to go back to the penguins to watch them being fed. These guys are more crazy for fish than pelicans. When the person in charge carried a bucket of fish, the penguins would walk like kids behind an adult who is distributing chocolates – tugging at him, crowding around him, beseeching him and finally stealing from him :-) When the fish deluded them and landed in the water, penguins seemed to take the plunge and swim like it was an F1 race. And they are fast!
The final show in the park was the Birds of Prey show. It was time to see the action of some of the fastest and sharpest birds – the eagles, vultures and the kites. One of the task for kites was to catch pieces of meat that were shot from a catalpult and these kites would just grab it off! The other task was to steal meat from the presenter's plate while he tried to not allow the birds to take away his meat. No matter how hard the presenter tried, within three passes one of kite would steal away the meat. They're simply too swift.
And then we bid aidue to the bird park.
Next destination was the Night Safari.
At Night Safari, a whole artifical forest cover has been created. It is a reserve to house some of the most endangered species as well as to provide an opportunity for people to see this animals in as natural environment as possible. The park opens only at 7pm. So, no point in going here before 6:30.
At 7 pm, there is a tribal dance show. These guys are amazing – they throw flames, shoot darts and fool audience to their heart's desire. And the audience just love them for it. In our show, they made fooled a lady to believe she could shoot darts (when she hadn't shot any dart at all) and fooled a guy to believe he could swallow flame. We then took a huge walk around the park. Its called a tiger trail and goes around the enclosure for various animals. There's a lot of animals to see as well – the hyneas, foxes, wolves, etc. The highlight though was the flying squirrel. It can shame any trapeeze artist by miles. We saw a squirrel jump off from a height of about 20 m to a tree of about 4 m and a distance of about 5 m. And it executed this jump in the blink of the eye. Its eyesight must have been fantabulous to first spot the right spot for landing and jumping with precise speed and thrust to exactly land on this spot. An awesome sight indeed.
After the trail walk, we went to see the night show. It is a show where some small animals do stunts – like otters showing you how to recycle (throw cans and bottles in appropriate bins) etc. Wouldn't say that it is the greatest show but worth a watch. The only issue I had – the presenter screams and that's quite painful to listen after such a weary day.
Finally, we took the tram ride. The electric tram goes round the safari and once more you a lot more animals. After about 40 minutes you're back and ready to hog a lot of dinner. There's an Indian tandoor place serving a nice buffet or biryani. We had biryani and naan. Then we came back home and crashed into bed. Thus ended our day two at Singapore.
Day 3 – Jan 11th 2009
The third day in Singapore was a bit more relaxed. We took time to eat and get ready, starting on trip by only at 2 pm.
We took the MRT/LRT trains and reached Clarke Quay. This place, for those who have visited UK is very similar to the City of Westminster and the walk along Thames. Clarke Quay is beside the river Singapore. The river, the wide bridges, the amphitheatre and the parliament house that looks like St. Paul’s’ Cathedral is very reminiscent of the land of the queen.
Going further is the Asia Civilization Museum (ACM). Since we didn’t know much about it, we decided to take a chance and visit it. It was a bit of mistake! The museum is well organized and maintained. But, it is not a place to be, if you are planning to walk a lot. The multiple galleries depicting the history of China, India, South-East Asia, Singapore and tribal arts is quite taxing on the legs. By the time we completed the museum, it took us about an hour and tired out my wife completely. At S$ 15 the tickets too aren’t that cheap. So, unless you’re interested in history and culture, my suggestion is – give it a skip. Take pictures of the building from outside but, don’t go in.
We then walked across the bridge to see the Merlion. This Merlion is different from the one we visited on day 1 at Sentosa. The Merlion here is smaller. It has a fountain in its mouth and the water drains into the River Singapore. Located just beside some really tall buildings and the 5 star hotel, it looks quite photogenic and tourists throng here for the exact same reason.
We then had a coffee at the under-the-bridge Starbucks and passed through the food joints. You get lots and lots of varieties of cuisines ranging from Malaysian, Singaporean to Indian, Chinese, and even Lebenese. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry at all – and had to forgo the food. Warning: For veggies who are queasy around non-veg, this place may look a bit gross. You can see live fresh-water crabs and lobsters in tanks and grilled duck with the recognizable beaks and bodies. So, be careful!
There is a boat ride around the river just like London. However, I did not find it as interesting. There is not much of history around the river and the guide is actually a recorded voice. In London, it is a live guide who makes the experience so very lively by his jokes and pranks. And there is enough history, treachery, blood, art and architecture to explain on an hour long trip. Here, the ride lasts about 30 minutes, most of which is spent in-between the guide’s pauses. My suggestion: If you are on a short budget, give the boat ride too a miss. Instead, just walk around and you can cover the whole path in just about an hour.
The tall buildings are quite majestic and sight and look quite amazing when lit. Unfortunately by the end of boat ride, we were all way too tired to stand and had to return back before the lights went on. So, we’re planning a trip again tomorrow.. so watch out for more…
On our way back home, we visited a small shopping mall at Fajah. Here we had a traditional Singaporean snack – the Kaaya. It tastes like toasted bread and butter. It has this traditional spread that is a bit sweet and salty applied on break – and it tasted quite good.
Day 4 - Jan 12th
Day 4 was a bit more relaxed. We had a lazy breakfast, an early lunch and a small cat-nap before starting on our tour. I also had a lot of stuff to study for the sake of my MBA seminar and this time-off came in handy.
First we visited the China Town. This is the area in Singapore where early Chinese, mainly the workers at the docks used to stay. The area used to be teeming with Chinese labourers, coupled with authentic food joints, shops – in effect making it replica of China itself. Even though the residents are now more integrated into the society, the area still retains its authentic Chinese charm. The shops are all very colourful, selling wares ranging from small miniature statues to T-Shirts, electronic items and a lot of knick-knacks for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Within the Little China is a Mariamman temple. Its gopuram was confused for a pagoda and thus, a lane called Pagoda Street exists but, no real Pagoda is present at all.
The next place we visited is the Suntec City / Citilink Mall. This is a massive underground mall, housing thousands of shops as well as a huge fountain that was once considered the biggest fountain on earth. Called the Fountain of Wealth, this fountain is designed based on Hindu tradition. There is an enclosure which is supposed to be in the form of a mandala. Within it, the fountain operates. Within the mandala, there is a small fountain. Belief has it that if you wish for something while going-round the fountain twice, the wish comes true. So, we too took a shot, made a wish and did our three pradakshina. At 7 pm in the evening, this fountain turns really colourful and interesting. There is a laser show on the fountain. Starting with some color display, it progresses to laser pattern show and concludes with people’s message appearing on the fountain. It is nice to see but, no as great as the ‘Songs of the Sea’ show that I described in Day 1.
Lastly, we went into the City Link Mall and had a nice sumptuous Indian dinner at Pangot, located on the top floor of the underground mall. The food was truly Indian in taste and after the dinner, we came back home.
Within the mall, there are a lot of places to eat – if you are a non-vegetarian and crave sea-food. For veggies like us though it is a bit tough. At most places, there is the distinct smell of sea-food that sort of makes you uneasy and lose out on any appetite for eating. And so, finally you are left with at eating in an Indian joint!
Day 5 - Jan 13th
This is the last my last full day in Singapore. So, it felt like we had to complete visiting all palces on this one day!
So, we started late :-) We started at around 2 pm and reached Marina Bay station. We were planning to visit the Marina Barrage. This is a fresh water reservoir, completed as recently as the year 2007. It is one of the first water reservoir right in the heart of any city. And it is an engineering marvel. This barrage, at a size of 1/6th of whole of Singaopore has been planned to store water for fulfilling the requirements till about 2030. It was built across the sea and water was gradually drained out so that the saltiness was removed.
The barrage operates to keep the water level constant despite the high and low tides. During a low tide, the 8-10 gates are closed so that water does not flow out to the sea when the sea water level is lower than the water level in the barrage. During a high tide, when the water level in the sea is higher than the water in the barrage, the same gates keep the salt water out. In case of heavy rains during the tides, different mechanisms are in place to ensure the water level stays constant and no flooding occurs.
Until a year or two, this place was barred for tourists and general visitors. Later on, the minister of environment decided that the best way to educate and encourage people to be more 'green' opened up the barrage for public and for water sports. There is an exhibition of sustainable energy, the history of the Singapore river, the construction of the barrage and finally a model that explains the working of the barrage.
Oh yes, we walked like stupid people all the way from the Marina Bay station to Marina Barrage. This distance is easily about 3-5 kms. So, please take a bus right outside station – or take a cab, if you can find one. But, don't ever plan to walk. It is not worth it. Luckily for us, there were no rains during our walk. However, the moment we entered the barrage, it started to rain!
Next, we took a train ride to – surprise surpise.. Little India :-) Of course, we weren't missing India so much. However, we just wanted to buy a few electronic items and the best shop around is the Mustfa Centre. So, we reached Little India. As per the name, this place is like India – chaotic, noisy and festive – with decoration for Pongal on all the roads.
After all the walk on Marina Barrage, we were hngry. So, we had to make a mandatory visit to Saravanaa Bavan. Yes, there is one in Singapore too. These guys should have some sort of loyalty programme. People who have eaten in more than one country at Saravanaa Bavan get 10% off :-) And I'd qualify (India, UK and Singapore hehehehe).
We then entered the 'Alice in Wonderland' type of a hole of Mustafa. It is a 7 storey complex with a building that spans across three cross-roads and could fill up a cricket ground or more. So it is BIG. And the best part is people inside actually know their way around and the place where products are displayed. We were thoroughly confused on where to get mobiles – and a lady selling herbal medicine on basement 2 told us that it would be available at floor 1, front, right side. Amazing!
We bought a Nokia 6630 for Vinaya and a Nokia 5130 XpressMusci for Vinaya's brother. And then, a neat little 1 TB external USB drive for myself :-) And I was 30 K lesser on my bank account. This place is injurious to health. The products displayed are so enticing that you'd don't really think about it and when the final bill arrives, it is a shocker.
We then ate at a neary Ananda Bhavan returant. I had a 'Plain Masala Thosai'. I was not in a mood to eat 'Medu Vadai'. And then, we had butter-milk and started back for home. My last long trip in Singapore came to an end. Tomorrow, I am off to Malaysia.
Day 6 – Singapore to Malaysia
So my trip to Singapore is done. And for the first time in my life, I have to leave my wife behind and travel alone to a new country. Its not for long – just for two days. I know. But, still there is that strange feeling of holloness in stomach that I can't get rid off.
On the last day in Singapore, we've not planned any trips. I am just at home, coping the images and figuring out a method to use the new external hard drive. Time just does not seem to move. I've done the copy, the recopy, packing, weighing and re-packing. Finally, I get bored have lunch and head out to the airport. I'm left my wife behind. I was planning to take a walk with her to catch the taxi. But fate had other plans. I get a taxi right after we get out of the elevator! The drive takes is astonishingly fast and I am in airport in just 25 minutes. As everything in Singapore, the budget terminal is very clean. With nothing to do, I take out the Micheal Crichton book, “Pirate Latitudes” and finish more than half the book before the boarding call is announced.
The flight takes off. I turn a page or two. I start filling out the immigration form for Malaysia and the pilot announces that the plane is ready for landing! The flight journey from Singapore to Malaysia is hardly 30 minutes. The taxiing on the runways, the pre-flight checks and the post-landing delays all add up to an hour. It must be the shortest flight that I've ever made!
Within the airport, there are taxi counters. I just took them. The taxi driver does not know English or Tamil. And I don't know Malay. So, I tell him the address. He tells me his understanding of the address. We go. He takes me straight to a University. I feel happy. At least someone still thinks I am quite young :-)
Rest of the story of Malaysia in the next blog :-)
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