Miscellany

For the first time in many months, I am taking to the keyboard not with the intention of writing about something in particular but about everything in general. At the risk of over-thinking this, it would be a very good exercise of reverse engineering thought and action. 

Of course, when there is a lot to say and no idea of where to start the best place to go to is your Twitter timeline. Ironically that’s also the place which has eaten up most of my desire to write here often.

Elections

An unavoidably large portion of my waking time is now spent following the grand tamasha that is the Indian election. Like all my fellow countrymen, and this time around women too, never has been the interest so high because never have the stakes been so high. As so rightly put in this book I am currently reading – ‘India is not an under-developed nation but a highly developed nation in an advanced state of decay’. It is a powerful thought that requires us to go back to the scriptures, our great philosophers, our spiritual leaders and in a good measure our politicians too. In fact, with the diversity that we have, what our politicians do can be considered to be a good job. It is a different matter that it needs a lot of improvement but we must spare a thought for those guys who are in politics and do what they do. This is not to say that corruption is permissible but with close to $30B spent on election campaigning in the last 5 years, corrupt practices seem to be the only logical translation of ROI for these politicians. So, are we in a black hole with no chance of escape or are we in a whirlpool from which we can still pull ourselves out? For the first time in many years, there are more reasons to be positive than anything else. Not even indifferent. We are now in a state where every single person has a reason to effect the change for their own reasons. Middle class finances, politician consciences, faith in the system and a general sense of optimism have all, in unfortunate unison, hit rock bottom. And there is no way back from here but upwards and that’s the reason I am more positive than anyone else in the India story.

Otherwise

This will also be the first time I will also write about work life. My work life has been like a surfer waiting for a temperamental wave. And I am not the surfer here. In various measures I have always attempted to put life before work in this balance that we are trying to achieve but how it has turned out has always depended on my mood. Yes, the last 8 years of working have been riding on a mood. The wave, at this point in time, is at a place where I am taking my job really seriously. By some magical coincidence, this is also the most exciting time for any one working in the marketing and media industry so I seem to have got the timing right. So that got me to think about this monster called data. As I usually end up doing – over-thinking and under-doing – I thought that a lot of data may actually not be good for us. As much as we like to analyse, the extent of quantitative data used in any analysis should be limited, and strictly, to a certain place. Why? Because it will make success a guarantee which we know is a phenomenon that doesn’t exist. By making extremely informed decisions using techniques like predictive modeling and meta-physical complexisation of simplification we are ensuring that we reduce risk. When we reduce risk, we reduce that chance of failure. And when we reduce the chance of failure, we lose the opportunities to learn. And when we stop learning, we know what happens. One look at the congress party is proof enough (now if that’s not evidence of election fever, what else is?). 

It is not to say that data is taking the intuition out of decision making and in the age of relentless data trail, the generation of data is an irreversible eventuality but it is the universal access of every possible data point that will make it worthwhile for people to compete. I was introduced into the world of marketing when experienced clients took leaps of faith and landed from one rock to another without wetting their pants (in the stream). It was exciting then to see your decisions succeed despite data. I wonder how it will feel when you see it coming.

To an extremely critical person like me who is forever looking to spot the spots in the laundry and the fly in the soup, thinking of solutions doesn’t come easy. The biggest solace for me is that I am not writing this for a marketing blog but just for my mental peace. Maybe I will have a good laugh at myself when I read this many years later and wonder why I ever thought like this. Maybe I can run a predictive model on that? No, not me.