The enabling Infrastructue

What it means by an enabling infrastructure:

It was Feb 01 2015. Midwestern USA was being pounded by a blizzard. Both the major airports of Chicago, O'Hare and Midway, were shutdown. The air travel was at its worst delays and cancellations.

I was flying from sunny Orange County to Minneapolis and to catch a connection to Midland MI. Completely oblivious, I had no idea that the Midwest was this bad until I landed at MSP and the gate monitor said my flight to MBS was cancelled. This is the only flight to MBS everyday.

No issues, once I am away from home I do not care where I sleep, until it is a Marriott! :) I walked over to the nearest customer service area, captured a desk, picked up the phone (direct reservation line), explained to the agent and sent her off to find me options.

At this moment I understood that Airline was not going to offer a hotel accommodation because this was a cancellation due to weather. While I was on hold I pulled out my laptop, connected to Internet - went to my corporate portal, went over to my booking engine. Searched for hotels next to Airport, found two - most airport hotels (hotels near airport) offer a shuttle service. Confirmed that they do.

Meantime the agent on the phone needed some information and correction, it took approx 20 minutes to get all booked. I called the hotel were I would have stayed and changed my reservation, called rental car and changed it, all the while I was on hold.

Because of my elite status with Marriott and rental car company, all the reservation changes happen seamlessly and in literally a minute without any penalties.

I landed at MSP around 6:45 PM, and was watching Super Bowl in my hotel room at 8:15 PM.

New England Patriots won after all that controversies of the deflated ball!

It is important to recognize that I had never put a foot into Minneapolis, before.

Next day, I had my full morning breakfast, worked till noon  and headed to the Airport. There was no impact to the required productivity of the project. I could participate in key calls. 

Morale of this story is: this is what it means by enabling infrastructure.

- clearly defined processes within airlines and infrastructure to get to them.

- airport infrastructure of WiFi and its consistent functionality.

- hotel services and processes clearly defined and consistent across the globe.

- the Marriott consistency and familiarity

- ease of use of corporate portals and technology which work seamlessly.

- not to mention - clean and abundant toilets and washrooms.

Infrastructure is not limited to physical aspect of it: it is not roads, cars and malls, alone: it is an orchestra of effective processes, clear and concise communication, effective tools, well trained humans, honest and focused objectives, and a need to excel supported by the physical infrastructures.

PS: The context of this post is developing countries. When McDonalds, Malls and roads pop-up in these countries - the feeling of "infrastructural sufficiency" evolves. The intent of this post is to define a level of maturity required to enable the human growth.

Part 1: Lessons from my composting experiments

As with anything else, internet is like the space. There are less active and productive satellites then there is that debris of defunct junked satellites.

Composting is one of those subjects where there are many schools of thoughts and actually many different ways to achieve composting.

We also have traveled a distance in a journey of composting and this is a summarized knowledge (at the point of time) which may help.

Things we want to compost:
1. Kitchen scraps (vegetarian)
    - Raw kitchen waste - Peels and other  waste as a result of cleaning of fruits and veggies.
    - Cooked / post consumed waste - What we throw away into sink and use trash disposal.
2. Lawn cuttings and garden waste produced by periodic cleaning  exercise
3. The power packed Fall leaves

Two key methods of composting:
1. Active composting
    Active composting is where we use any kind of worms to help us convert trash to treasure.

2. Passive composting
    Passive composting is where we pile things up and turn them periodically.

One - For Kitchen scraps, of all kinds - Vermicomposting is recommended and most productive.
Second -For Lawn cuttings and periodic garden waste - Pile based composting on the ground or
in a compost bin which can be easily turned - may be good idea.
Third - For Fall leaves - a separate pile or compost bin is recommended.

Now a key question everyone comes across - so you want us to have three composters ?
Simple answer Yes. Though, let me explain a bit more and ensure that it need not be a lot of work.

Stay tuned for part 2:
Part 2: Our experiments and learning from Active Composting

Uber Amazon!

It was February 14, 2025. My internet connected calendar woke me up early, reminding me that I had forgotten to order roses and diamond ring from the Tiffany and that I still have couple of hours if I made a decision now. I quickly get out of bed, brushed my teeth and reached for freshly brewed coffee (my internet connected toothbrush had informed my coffee machine that I was up!)

 As I was sipping coffee, my TV started presenting me with various options of Roses, (do I need to say it switched itself on because I picked-up the coffee mug ? :)) I selected one and asked to order. It went over to my second immediate to-do and asked me if I wanted to make an appointment with my personal adviser, Jennifer Lawrence, at the local Tiffany ? I said yes, and it continued to present what they have available in their inventory within my planned (internet connected) budget.

As I was finishing coffee, my TV (I have to figure out a cool name for this thing ...! :)) walking me through what was planned by my personal cloud based scheduler and that both of the items, Roses and the Ring, will be picked-up, gift-wrapped and delivered to my wife at her office at 10:00 AM.

It then informed me that I should write / sign a card, when I visit Tiffany,  Jenny will have my card ready, please hand it over to Jenny or if you want us to pick it up from your office, just let Jenny know to schedule a pick-up.

I said thank you, finished my coffee and went for my morning run.

As much as this sounds like a fiction, this is closer then 2025. Amazon has already succeeded in providing every consumer and (much of media) needs of a consumer at a flat fee for the service. Uber has the exact same ambition but with a bit different approach, methods and model. Combined these together with a rapidly growing product market of internet-of-things, it is just around the corner.

Two distinct approaches, two distinct era, two distinct models but a common goal of achieving monopoly over the access of the consumers. B2C is not an option anymore, it is a survival!

Reference:
Amazon same-day-shipping rates:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200105970

Amazon delivers on Sundays!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/11/11/amazon-sunday-delivery-usps/3479055/

Uber's ambitions:
http://allthingsd.com/20130627/ubers-travis-kalanick-on-numbers-competition-and-ambition-everything-but-funding/

Uber's aggression:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/29/lyft-be-more-than-a-number/

Knowing that is: I do not know

I grew up in India. India is a country of abundance and scarcity. People are in abundance but the employment is not so much. It is a country of survival of the fittest, fastest and most connected.

One is expected to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Emphasis is on getting it done, not on how and often not on how well, either. A common Indian thinks: one can not afford to say I do not know, If I have to get it done, how does it help me to say: I do not know ?

The phrase 'on the job training' was probably invented in India.

It was my first week at a client site in Los Angeles area. The project was in definition phase. I was in a project meeting where the project manager was compiling action items. She inquired from a team member: When can you get this started ? The answer came: 'Well, I do not know what is expected of me and I do not even know how to do this ?' I was bit shocked and thought - this guy is going to get fired, soon. I was not designed to say or witness  'I do not know'. 

Fast forward two decades, when I think about this - I notice how many times in a day I say 'I do not know'. I am realizing that, one's ability to express 'I do not know' is a very fundamental need to enable self-development. I have begun to think that a socioeconomic environment, which allows an individual to express one's inability, creates a solid foundation of freedom for an individual growth.

It is revealing to think: - you know a whole lot when you enable someone to say 'I do not know'.
You are saying I know me, I am self aware, when you say I do not know.

Reference:

India is a country of inflation. It is twice as populous than all 28 NATO countries combined. It produces more engineers then entire population of many small countries in the world.

India is a country of 'abundance and scarcity '.
India: Population: 1.2 Billion   # of Tax Payers: 32 Million.
US:    Population: 326 Million # of Tax Payers: 145 Million

Only 2.77% of India's population pay Income Tax, as reported by a minister in 2012.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/187531/only-277-percent-indias-population.html

A Country without Army!

A friend of mine toured Costa Rica for a week. The experience he shared of his visit to this beautiful country, intrigued me to know more about it and share.

Costa Rica is a small, quaint, tropical, southern country of the continent of the north America. The Republic of Costa Rica abolished Army in 1949 and said to have replaced with the army of teachers.

The literacy rate in Costa Rica is 94.9%,^[2] one of the highest in Latin America.

There are many things unique and refreshing about Costa Rica:

- Costa Rica constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949, becoming the first and one of the few sovereign nations without a standing army.^[7][8][9]

- Costa Rica has consistently been among the top-ranking Latin American countries for the Human Development Index (HDI), placing 62nd in the world as of 2012.<sup>[6]

-</sup>  Costa Rica is known for its progressive environmental policies, being the only country to meet all five criteria established to measure environmental sustainability.^[12]

- The NEF also ranked Costa Rica in 2009 as the greenest country in the world. In 2012, Costa Rica became the first country in the Americas to ban recreational hunting after the country’s legislature approved the popular measure by a wide margin.
It sounds to be a country worth visiting.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica

Patriotism is a Doctrine

An immigrant periodically confronts the term Patriotism. 
When someone recently asked me such a question, I decided to learn more about it.
Patriotism is perceived as a measure for the love of the land.

Please allow me to start with a context of my belief:
I believe that anything, which can not be measured, can not be managed.
Anything which can not be managed, should not be used to evaluate anything.
When we do utilize them as evaluators, it only creates unresolvable conflicts.
This applies to perceived measures like - Religious and Patriotism.

Thus, if the intent is to seek a solution, one may not use these perceived, unmeasurable performance indicators, to evaluate a problem or quality of a solution.

Based on this understanding, my current conclusion is, that "Patriotism is a doctrine to control masses and nothing beyond that". I can sure go into a longer version of why, by sharing my experiences of last two decades starting with my first migration from Anand to Mumbai (within India), but not today. (Phew! :))

Historically there is one common behavior which all of 7 billion homo sapiens have demonstrated, to varying degrees, is "Migration".  Humans seek for lands which tend to their needs better. That land can be within recent definition of a country or not.

Please refer to this wiki for the history of the word: Patriotism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism

There is a tonne of material out there to understand the origins and utility of the term Patriotism.

It is important to note that Patriotism is a fairly new term coined only in late 18th century. Coincidentally this is the same time frame when the world started seeking "Democracy" as a model of Governance more extensively. Starting with US in 1776. I have no specific data but I would want to believe that there has been a significant part of the earth, which became democratic, since 18th century.

It may be a coincidence, but my cynical mind derives that this has to do with a NEED of something other then religion (which reached limited masses, comparatively) which would help control a larger set of masses, beyond the boundary of a religion.

A final and a very prominent clue is - why are people within a nation, who call emigrants unpatriotic, (only because they do not live there) but continuously do things which damages their own motherland ? My take, because they really do not believe in patriotism nor understand it but just use it because Patriotism can not be measured. Patriotism in this specific case is confused with the term residents.

Having said all that - you may notice that most immigrants, especially who came to US in last decade or two, are always involved in varying degree of volunteering within US and they contribute to their "motherland" significantly (whatever the reasons or motivations may be) without getting into any claims or debate about it. This is the reason why India, for example measures its economic growth by FII - Foreign Institutional Investments - keyword is Foreign.

Point is if one has to be appraised for their love for the land (mother or father! :)) they should be appraised by their commitment to "Giving back", irrespective of where they are giving it back. Simply because  "Giving Back" is measurable and actionable, Patriotism is not.

Side Note:
I wonder: why do Politicians love their jobs and never want to resign ?
Because this is one job where the employer (citizens) has no clue what or how to question the employee and in most cases either loves their employee blindly OR gives up on him/her because they belong to a Union! :)

The other Indian

I had to replace the coolant reservoir tank for my car. Because the part (tank) was only available from a dealer, I went to my local dealer to prepay for the part. The gentlemen at the desk asked for my name. I handed over my credit car because I find it the easiest to convey the correct spellings of my name!

He pronounced my last name so perfectly, I exclaimed: how did you say it so well ? He pointed to his business card (visiting card in India) and said: can you say, my name ? His last name is: Yackytooahnipah (pronounced: Yaa Kee too naa pah) I attempted it fairly successfully.  (at least that is what Kelly said, not sure if he was being polite! ) He declared, "I am 100% Comanche".

I ordered the part, paid for it and said good bye, see you tomorrow and parted.

The next day, I went to pick up the part. Kelly was there, he quickly procured my part and handed me over. I paused and before I say good bye, I said, "Kelly: don't you find it funny that I am that Indian who he (Columbus) was searching for and you are the one who he found ?" .. he laughed out loud. We said good bye and parted.

I found this exchange quite enriching and humbling.

God is what happens when humanity is connected.