Gyaan and updates

So here is a bunch of Gyaani posts from the notes on my laptop

1. The Game Changer
   
   I've always been fascinated with larger than life figures, guys with the visions and the mettle to act upon them. And I have always wondered, what does it mean to be a game changer? I think I've finally found an answer -
   

   "When you are the game changer, you build stuff, grounds up, and you drastically redefine how people live. And that opportunity, to be a game changer, comes once in a decade, in every industry."

   The funny thing though, is that very few people know that they are on the cusp of a revolution, and fewer still realize that they have the chance to be the torchbearer.
    
    
2. The Indian Ocean, the Arabian sea
   
   There are times, when I can't stop contemplating the ancient history of India, and of other countries.
   And it was during one such thought cycle, that an idea suddenly chanced upon me  - How the histories of India with its various states and multitude of dynasties, was like an ocean in itself, while that of many other countries, was just like a sea - the sea is vast in itself, but much smaller than the ocean, both seem infinite, and yet one is greater than the other.
   
    
3. Be Clear
   
   It is best to kill something when things are still in inception, for then you haven't committed yourself - your time or your energy - in any sense, and hence there is no attachment.
   Conversely, it is really hard to kill something in infancy, because you don't know what opportunities that idea may bring you.
   The bottom line being, you need to be crystal clear about what you will, and what you will not do.
   Facts change, and so some of your decisions may change, but if too many of them change, there is something fundamentally wrong with the way you are conducting this whole business.
   Hence there must be a balance, between your decision making, and the timing of its implementation. Stick to the plan, and yet, keep the plan flexible.
   
    
4. Experience matters
   
   At my new company, most of the junta is made up of young folks, folks in their mid 20's. Since people here are mostly young, there is limited experience individually and cumulatively.
   So how does learning happen in such a place? By making a lot of potential mistakes that experience could've avoided, and learning, by shooting your own foot.
   
    
5. FireFox OS
   
   So last week, Intex launched a FireFox OS based mobile in Indian market, the first smartphone at <2k price point. And I couldn't resist buying one, as I was anyway looking for a low budget phone.
   
   There was a time when big companies bet high on HTML5 apps instead of native apps. The philosophy of write code once and deploy anywhere, including on the mobile is really alluring.
   It is a testament to the HTML5 phenomenon that even the likes of Facebook bet on it and built apps upon it. Only later were they proved wrong, when the practicalities of embedding a webkit framework within your app made the visible performance gaps glaring in complex apps, and people realised that using underlying OS and hardware features to boost up the native app was a better way to go.
   
   Anyway, coming over to FireFox OS. While google came up with chrome OS ages back, it was for products like laptops, where individual user's use cases differ significantly. However, a mobile on the other hand, with a good enough app store has a different model of usage.
   I'm not 100% confident that FF OS is the next big thing in mobile, but its trying hard to do to mobile hardware what linux did to PC hardware -  a community defined OS for what the community wants.