Today is Teacher’s day. It’s a day when we celebrate ‘learning’ and catalysts for ‘my learning’. A teacher is the primary person responsible for learning.
Sometimes we miss the teachers from our peer community where we learn the most.
Besides this we need to celebrate the ‘lifelong student within me’ – curiosity.
A teacher is a student first.
Gratitude to all my teachers and peers with who I am continuing my learning journey!
#learning #teaching #education #students
Guru Purnima and Intellect Day are coinciding on the same day. The purpose of Intellect is to drive the culture of continuous learning and make a small difference to humanity by applying design thinking holistically.
For my global friends, Guru Purnima means ‘celebrating teachers’ in your life on a full moon day.
A teacher is anyone who has helped you grow in your thinking by igniting curiosity and inspiration.
I enjoy the company of this august group of learners/teachers at Intellect and my customers who provide me continuous energy, joy and fulfilment.
This inner energy and joy gets transferred to our customers where we help them work with the best-in-class FinTech solutions with the passionate leaders of intellect. In this journey of partnership, we mutually play the role of teachers, sometimes co-creating the experience of a customer’s customer. In today’s era it’s called ‘Digital’ but to us it’s joy and fulfilment for the end customer.
We transfer this joy to the young achievers of Ullas by inspiring them with a similar curiosity and joy of learning. This process has the power of Positive Virality.
Again, Happy Teacher’s and Intellect Day!
#designthinking #learning #inspiration #creativity #leadership #fintech #innovation #teachers
How many of you have read this book, ‘Meaning of Life’ by Victor Frankl. He is a survivor of the Concentration Camp and has founded the theory of Logo Therapy based on the Will of Purpose/Meaning vs. Will of Pleasure or Will of Power/Superiority.
Today I enjoyed a slow walk on Boat Club Road. I observed the majestic trees which I did not pay attention to for the last 20 years of walking on the same street. Each tree expresses itself uniquely through its solid trunks, strong branches and their direction, exotic leaves and then beautifully designed flowers. Some of the trees act as large ‘hotels’ for insects and birds. Some trees provide their shoulders to other weaker plant that have weaker trunks. The sleek and weaker creepers are able to climb up to 40 feet and are able to get their food from sun.
I touched 14 trees and tried to feel them. Some trees are over 100 years or 200 years old. They have seen and experienced more history than most of us and kept secrets within themselves.
I experience the power of a slow walk with no pressure on counting steps. I just sat down looking up to see the beauty of each tree. They have grown over 50 feet high. Some are growing upwards and some are growing horizontally to provide shade to humans. They just stand there without any expectation, contributing to humanity year after year.
Truly selfless!
#nature #slowwalk #learningsfromtrees
This morning, I started with a cloudy day and we were enjoying our morning tea with rusks. The weather turned better and it started raining.
I was amazed to observe the cycle of rains resulting in great crops in the field. I admired the cycle of nature – sun’s energy along with water and the natural force of plants, produces so much for humanity.
The thoughts further created a question – What is wealth and how did it get created?
1. All wealth is created by nature.
2. Nature creates wealth through agriculture and minerals. There is no other way to create primary wealth.
3. Trading of this primary wealth by multiple transactions creates secondary wealth.
4. Secondary wealth surplus gets invested into building safety and home conveniences.
5. Secondary wealth surplus invested in education, research and innovation have created multiple technologies resulting in various professions and industries. Each profession and industry then started driving Tertiary wealth.
This means all the wealth in the world gets created by farming and mineral extraction from Mother Nature. The irony is that today a farmer is the most poor of this chain while all wealth is residing in the hands of ‘Value adders’.
I need your help in building on this hypothesis.
#nature #wealth #agriculture
A young man in his mid-twenties knocks on the door of a renowned Guru. He says: “I’ve come to you because I wish to study the Vedas.”
“Do you know Sanskrit?” the Guru asks.
“No,” replies the young man.
“Have you studied any Indian philosophy?”
“No. But don’t worry. I just finished my doctoral dissertation at Harvard on logic. So now, I would just like to round up my education with a little study of the Vedas.”
Article: Published on June 1, 2020
Amazing story of ‘what is the right problem?’
A young man in his mid-twenties knocks on the door of a renowned Guru. He says: “I’ve come to you because I wish to study Vedas.”
“Do you know Sanskrit?” the Guru asks.
“No,” replies the young man.
“Have you studied any Indian philosophy?”
“No. But don’t worry. I just finished my doctoral dissertation at Harvard on logic. So now, I would just like to round up my education with a little study of the Vedas.”
“I doubt,” the Guru says, “that you are ready to study the Vedas. It is the deepest knowledge ever known. If you wish, however, I am willing to examine you in logic, and if you pass that test I will teach you the Vedas.”
The young man agrees.
The Guru holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face; the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?”
The young man stares at the Guru. “Is that really a test in logic?”
The Guru nods.
“The one with the dirty face washes his face,” he answers confidently.
“Wrong. The one with the clean face washes his face. Examine the logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, the one with the clean face washes his face.”
“Very clever,” the young man says. “Give me another test.”
The Guru again holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face and the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?”
“We have already established that. The one with the clean face washes his face.”
“Wrong. Each one washes his face. Examine the logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, the one with the clean face washes his face. When the one with the dirty face sees the one with the clean face wash his face, he also washes his face. So, each one washes his face.”
“I didn’t think of that,” says the young man. It’s shocking to me that I could make an error in logic. Test me again.”
The Guru holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face; the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?”
“Each one washes his face.”
“Wrong. Neither one washes his face. Examine the logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. But when the one with the clean face sees the one with the dirty face doesn’t wash his face, he also doesn’t wash his face. So, neither one washes his face.”
The young man is desperate. “I am qualified to study the Vedas. Please give me one more test.”
He groans, though, when the Guru lifts two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face; the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?”
“Neither one washes his face.”
*“Wrong. Do you now see why logic is an insufficient basis for studying the Vedas? Tell me, how is it possible for two men to come down the same chimney, and for one to come out with a clean face and the other with a dirty face? Don’t you see? The whole question is nonsense, foolishness, and if you spend your whole life trying to answer foolish questions, all your answers will be foolish, too.”*
That’s why having wisdom is more important than having logic…
*Infinite love* *Infinite wisdom *
During one of my Design Thinking sessions, someone asked me a question.
What is the algorithm for making an ordinary person perform extraordinary?
I was not ready for this difficult question. I have been struggling with this in our HR department and have been designing various frameworks like competency frameworks etc. Right now, we have heuristics patterns.
Then he asked me the next question, “How did you accomplish extraordinary results during 1993 to 2000 when Polaris grew at a CAGR of 115% consistently?”
Now, this question forced me to think and get into a reflective mood.
I acknowledged to him humbly that I don’t know the answer and that I will reflect and maybe come back to him with some patterns and anti-patterns later.
Now, I am posing a question to this august and experienced group to help me. I need help.
To me, being part of this group in itself qualifies for being in the extraordinary performance bracket.
I am looking forward to your responses in this group or my personal mail describing your personal moments of change from ordinary fresher to extraordinary performer. What changed in your thinking which accelerated your journey? It can be at any stage, when you were in your 20s or 30s or 40s or 50s.
You may narrate the incidence or the person who trusted you or the environment.
#frameworks #patterns
Yesterday, I questioned the fight scenes even in animated movies made for children on Facebook and LinkedIn. I received a lot of insights from your comments. I am documenting a few of the observations here.
1. Fight scenes train a child’s mind for better defence.
2. Fight scenes build ‘violence’ as a key method of resolving any difference of opinions/perspectives/expectations.
3. Violence sells better among audiences which means we as developed human being still love ‘animal’ instinct of physical force over logical conversations (dialogue) to resolve difference of opinions/perspectives.
Somewhere I am confused with our ‘expressed’ behaviour i.e. we must live with love as a key uniting force of humanity vs. ‘suppressed’ behaviour of liking physical dominance.
Please share your thoughts on this dichotomy of our behaviours.
Very inspiring on how deep each piece of design can go into and what impacts it creates on the way humanity thinks.
https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80057883
What is poison?
Anything which is more than our necessity is poison. It may be power, wealth, hunger, ego, greed, laziness, love, ambition, hate or anything.
What is fear?
Non-acceptance of uncertainty. If we accept that uncertainty, it becomes an adventure.
What is envy?
Non-acceptance of the good in others. If we accept that good, it becomes an inspiration.
What is anger?
Non-acceptance of things which are beyond our control. If we accept that, it becomes our tolerance.
What is hatred?
Non-acceptance of a person as he is. If we accept that person unconditionally, it becomes love.
Hello, my name is Arun Jain. I am a design thinker living in Chennai, India. This is my blog, where I post my thoughts, technology trends and tips about the fintech world and many more.