Kill your time wisely

Social media, regular media, mobile phones, TV - have all and together dumbed us down so badly and so tremendously that I fear we are losing our ability to think, reason and interact like erstwhile normal human beings. Things are getting integrated and we are pushed for ever higher adoption, so that more and more data is generated that can be fed into big-datas and AI's - and help businesses target customers better, create machines that are like the screwed up versions of humans that we ourselves are on the internet. The addictive nature of online platforms is no more a hot topic of debate, as it was in the Orkut days 10 years back - perhaps coz the debates that gain prominence now are controlled better by the platforms that host these debates, and there's no incentive for them in letting the content that hurts them show up, especially when they are listed companies and responsible for keeping on generating profits and shareholder returns.

Picture copied from here

Getting out of this quagmire is as nearly impossible as it is easy getting into it. It plays with your mind constantly, and the moment you try to distance yourself from it even a bit, the feeling of getting left out grips you all over, and when the cold turkey becomes unbearable, you are pushed back into the mess. And even if you are capable of dealing with the psychological complexities, the more practical issue is that the way most stuff works these days is tightly integrated with the web and the social media. How could you stay away from WhatsApp when everyone in your office is lying in that group in the app where office matters are discussed, although only for 1% of the time; and there are more 1-1 interactions happening on these instant messengers than face-to-face? How can you stay away from LinkedIn when networking has become the only way to get good jobs - true especially for MBA's? I owe finding my wife to a matrimonial site, so I shouldn't complain. But then, a matrimonial site doesn't try to engage you beyond its purpose. Same is the case with a job portal or a travel/hotel booking site, although they want you to return for your next job or booking. But the likes of Facebook and Twitter work on a different principle. Their goal is not to help the user carry out a transaction but to tie down the user and make him/her stay for as long as possible. And they do this by creating an environment where the users pull each other while the platform provides them with tools to do so. And smartly embedded in those tools and the environment are pieces that are paid for, not by the users but by the actual customers of these platforms for gaining access to the users killing time and exposing themselves to these pieces in the process, and also offering information about themselves that helps businesses target them more effectively. This is a simple and general way of looking at what happens on the web, but the point that does come out is that someone out there is using our time to help other businesses. In a way that's great for the market. We, as users, are undoubtedly served better in the process, but at what expense? The opportunity cost can't be quantified as any alternative scenario seems inconceivable the way things have evolved on the web and into our lives. Nor do I think we can go back from here. But perhaps some of us can make better choices and make something else of our time, while also not totally giving up the better service that's on offer!

Speed Bumps

We bought a new Air Conditioner in March this year. Twice since then some birds have screwed up the wires leading to the external unit outside. I earlier thought it was pigeons, as a lot of them fly around. But recently saw a few parrots going there, at the point where the wires were messed up last time. How to deal with this issue? I told my wife in Hindi - "Ye kabootar nahi, mitthu ne kiya". She burst out laughing. I came to know that Mitthu is more like a loving nickname for parrots. The more common word for them is Tota. I knew Tota, but didn't know that Mitthu is more the with-love kind of name. I sort of understand that now - Irfan Khan used to call Saba Qamar as Mitthu in the movie Hindi Medium - it was a love-name like for a parrot, i.e., Tota. I see that Tota is clearly masculine, I am not so sure about Mitthu from the sound of it, although it has to be masculine just to be consistent. Anyhow, the damn creature keeps damaging the wires of the AC, and I can't do anything about it. I have to set up some hurdles, so that the parrots can't reach the wires.

I came back just now from a stroll in our neighborhood - one of the 3-4 tea-and-walk breaks I take everyday as I work from home. There's a new ugly speed-breaker built on the nice concrete road in our area. I was totally pissed off looking at it. Firstly coz I hate these things called speed breakers in India, which you find all over the country, and which I find most idiotic as a concept. And secondly, a lot of times these are made really huge and high without any consideration for the vehicles that have to pass the hurdle... my brother's Honda City was hit at the base because of insufficient ground clearance.

The most ridiculous aspect of these so called speed-breakers is the concept itself - creating a hurdle on the road so that one is forced to slow down - who thinks like that? Well, I do agree that humans are a kind that don't adhere to speed limits if you just tell them to. You have to either penalize them effectively and without fail, or force them to slow down somehow. And the latter is what these bumps on the road do. It seems the more technical term for these is speed-bumps.

As is common with the way we Indians think about ourselves, I always felt that the these speed-bumps are so idiotic that they must have been invented and are used only in India. But when I looked up their history here - Speed_bump - Wikipedia, I came to know that the invention was by the Americans in the early 20th century, and the first ones were built in New Jersey. In my 3 short trips to the US over the past 10 years, 2 of which were to New Jersey, I've never seen these bumps. If they're still found in places, I didn't pass by any. According to the wikipedia page UK and parts of Europe have what are called speed humps, which are less aggressive than speed bumps, and are built with lots of regulation, oversight and research. I find them stupid too. Anyway, Indian city roads have all kinds of humps and dumps on our roads resulting from patches, stuff, gutters, potholes, and so on, besides the specifically installed bumps, which together make driving here a lot of fun.

Being a Civil Engineer only by a 4-year degree, I know that guidelines exist in India as well on how these bumps are to be constructed. And I know for sure that they are rarely followed. I still remember the lecture in my 3rd year at IITB where the professor talked about the guidelines present in some IS code, and then referred to the newly built super high and ugly bumps in the campus and talked about how poorly they were designed, rather not designed at all. That was in 2003.

We live with them. We adapt, coz questioning could be dangerous or tedious in India. It's much easier to just cross the bump and move on. Often when I am driving, I feel like I am running a hurdles race. Sometimes I refuse to slow down and let myself fly, but manage land immediately thereafter and keep going. They say if you take off and reach orbital velocity, you can go round the earth. And if you reach the escape velocity, you can go beyond. Some day these bumps will help me take off to heavens, not slow me down!