Pittsburgh (Night and Day_

Youtube favorite : Experiential self versus remembering self.

Danial Kahneman's (inventor of behavioural economics) talk on our experiential self and remembering self.

"The riddle of experience versus memory"

Youtube favorite: Science of motivation - Dan Pink

The science of motivation - Dan Pink.

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.

The power of incentives, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

"Rewards narrow our focus, restricts our possibilities".

A pleasant surprise from BroadbandUSA program committee!

Nice to get a certificate and a pleasantly written letter from the Commerce department for reviewing the US Government Broadband USA program proposals!

Time management (or task abandonment)

With limited time and a lengthy TODO list, it is imperative to institute some time management techniques. Having tried different time management techniques to get 'quality' time for things I cherish to do, there is not one technique that works perfectly (well ironically over time!). BTW, I am realizing that time management becomes much more critical as you get older!.

One thing I have realized that in a connected world, especially in the fast paced Silicon Valley, the only way to do time management is by task abandonment. There's always more one wants to do but the lack of sufficient time makes it harder to give justice to everything you want to accomplish. So my mantra to manage time, start abandoning tasks that are unimportant or less critical.

Video revolution

Outstanding presentation about online video. I particularly liked the presentation style!

Companies replicating the disruptive eBay business model

eBay for Manufacturers MFG.COM provides a service where a engineer or purchasing manager can submit a description of the part and a CAD design. Manufacturers submit bids and the buyer chooses a bid. After the bidding is complete the part and the price is added to the database for future reference. Next time you want to manufacture a car, try this.

eBay for Software RENTACODER provides a service where a individual or company can submit a requirements document for software to be developed. Software developers or companies can submit a bid. The winning rentacoder develops the software and delivers it to the purchaser. Next time you want to develop a leading edge video recognition software, try this.

eBay for Loans PROSPER provides loans where lenders and borrowers can bid to get the best returns and best loan rates. Next time you want to earn a good interest on your money or borrow money at a good rate, try this.

The eBay business model which disrupted traditional Commerce is now disrupting other businesses and is creating a highly competitive environment in which customers get choices and an opportunity to select the best. It would be interesting to see which other businesses status quo can be broken with this model.

Network Priorities for China Unicom

Working for a network software platform provider to large OEMs/ODMs, you are always disconnected from the real customers (aka service providers). You software is morphed into the OEMs network equipment to satisfy the requirements of the providers. I am always seeking opportunities to talk to service providers and see where they are going with respect to their network evolution. This becomes a important input to plan your product roadmap/engineering. Recently in one of the articles by retired China Unicom's CTO, Wei Leiping noted the top priorities for China Unicom (in no specific order):
1. IPv6: The surge of internet penetration in China is depleting the IPv4 addresses fast. A The IPv6 transition technologies have become mandatory for Unicom to sustain their growth.
2. CDMA to LTE: Massive investments are underway to upgrade the networks due to the huge cellular data demand.
3. "The Internet of Things" to enable millions of machines, devices, sensors, meters, and industrial systems that will be interconnected via the Internet.

With the network infrastructure investments Chinese service providers have made and the aggressive adoption of the newest technologies without the burden of legacy systems, the Chinese market looks strongly poised to be a technology defining market of the future.

Learning from Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon Inc, was interviewed by Steven Levy where he gave his perspectives about Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Check out the paraphrased version by Om Malik here. Two learnings I particularly liked were:
"In tough times, focus on the customer".
"The trick to being an entrepreneur is to know when to be stubborn and when to be flexible: Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible about tactics"

Media simplification through your iPhone

In an effort to attain nirvana through your iPhone, I recently discovered Simplify Media and Stream to Me. Using Simplify Media, I can stream my iTunes library to my iPhone over the internet. Using Simplify Media, I can stream video as well. Both have iPhone apps (and soon will be iPad apps). With Simplify Media you can share your library with friends and shuffle songs. It does not require port forwarding when using it across your home router. Stream to Me is less featured, more straightforward but can stream video as well.

Standing out...

Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick talks about breaking expectations to stand out. The book, an interesting read gives numerous examples of how companies/people have broken traditional expectations to stand out. Voodoo Donut and Zipcar are two such examples. "Change the obvious pattern", to stand out.