Mind u Read

They say every unpleasant situation also has a positive side to it. It ends up teaching us new lessons. Like a silver lining for a cloud. In the same manner, I learnt an interesting lesson recently. I call my lesson ‘The Scarcity Mindset’ . It’s a key ingredient of our being and something we seem to have totally forgotten when it concerns our online personas. This post is my tiny attempt to share what I learnt. I hope you see value in it too. Here’s my story.

We have been reading many stories about Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially since the emergence of ChatGPT—a generative AI tool that possesses immense human-like powers to consume and create content on the fly.   They say only those who embrace AI will thrive in the future, and that it will replace most jobs that humans can do today. There are others, like Elon Musk, who say this AI technology has the potential to go rogue and it needs to be regulated before it’s too late.   Whatever the verdict on that, and whether people choose to use these AI tools or not, one thing is for sure:   AI is going to impact all our lives at a very fundamental human level, and there’s no escaping that.   To illustrate my point, I would like to share three mini stories that I encountered recently.   These are simple stories; not about the wonderful things AI can do for us; but about our reaction to that as humans—leading to the discussion about the battle we all will find ourse...

This post originally appeared in my weekly newsletter.  You can sign up for my newsletter here:   Mind u Read Weekly Digest . Too much content The Indian cricket team won a historic test match at the Oval last week. I caught bits of the match on the Sony Liv app. I had a doubt though and tweeted it out… Great win by India again. I have a genuine question. How do you folks manage to find time to watch test matches when there are so many other distractions all over the internet and otherwise? #INDvENG — Kartik Dayanand (@KartikDayanand) September 6, 2021 Most people confirmed my doubt — a majority of them watch it in small bursts when there is some excitement in the game. They get to know about it on Twitter or other platforms and then jump in to watch that segment of the match. This is very different from the way we grew up watching complete matches on DD. Without any other distractions except for power cuts and news bulletins. The choice and ease of access of content...

Over the last few weeks Facebook has been bombarding me with notifications that my friends support the Free Basics platform. Then started the circus about how bad this is for all of us, with most people showing their concern on various platforms, by sharing videos and articles mushrooming by the minute, all trashing the Free Basics platform. In their opinion, internet is a democracy that shouldn’t be tampered with. They say Facebook is acting as a gatekeeper, a dictator, building an internet that is a silo of the larger internet, furthering its business interests in the garb of doing social good for an unsuspecting audience. According to them, Facebook is nothing short of an evil imperial emperor. I find most of their arguments very cute…they remind me of this line from the movie Seven Samurai: “What's the use of worrying about your beard when your head's about to be taken?” Forget the ‘about to be taken’ bit; in our case not many realize that the ...

Ever since I watched the film “The Matrix” in the late 90s, I've often wondered if what was shown in the film could become a reality someday. It is highly unlikely, but for those who don't know what the Matrix is all about, here is a brief Wikipedia entry about the film: "The Matrix depicts a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source." The Internet of today seems like a nascent version of the Matrix. We humans constantly look for validation and information online. We not only consume but also generate all of the data online via social networks and other means which are powered by corporations that now wield immense power over our lives – think Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. The Apple Watch seems like the next big logical s...

Face'booth’ Capturing - I came across this term for the first time on a TV news debate earlier today evening. A term inspired by the concept of booth capturing - a process by which fake votes are posted and elections are won based on those inflated numbers.  Something similar is happening on Social Media; politicians it seems are buying fake followers on Twitter and Facebook to show how powerful and influential they are. Latest example being that of the CM of Rajasthan - Ashok Gehlot seeing a sudden rise in the number of Likes on his Facebook page, and funnily the majority of those Likes coming from Istanbul out of all the places. Similar accusations are placed on other politicians too, notable among them being Narendra Modi who recently overtook Shashi Tharoor as the most followed Indian Politician on Twitter, aided by a lot of egg heads as seen by the opposite camp (If you are on Twitter you would know what those eggs mean). I don’t blame these politicians. They a...

“We’re getting closer to a world where technology takes care of the hard work—discovery, organization, communication—so that you can get on with what makes you happiest… living and loving. It’s an exciting time to be at Google.” These are the concluding lines of a recent announcement by the CEO of Google, Larry Page. It sounds great that technology will make our lives easier and we don’t have to work hard anymore. The machines, or in other words - technology they say will run our world. But... I think we are in the middle of an unfolding horror story! For, it can’t be a bizarre coincidence that when we are at the peaks of technological innovation, USA is going through its worst recession in 97 years. The story is not too different in Europe and most of the rest of the world; there must be something seriously wrong somewhere. Plenty of articles have been written on the often repeated topic of machines taking away jobs from humans and also about its other menacin...

Not the government, not some anonymous hacking group, virus or terrorist network; the greatest threat to the internet as it exists today is from none other than its biggest site, Facebook! Facebook likes you, but hates the internet! Before I explain why or how, let me first give you a quick background about why Facebook is in a position to threaten the internet. The back story: Newspapers, radio and television are the three main sources of news for us till date. They are typically run by Governments or Businesses that have commercial and political interests to cater to. There is always a danger of the news being censored, biased or sensationalized and one can never really believe every word one reads or hears through these mediums. Such is their reputation that the villain in the 1997 James Bond movie ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ was a media baron who controlled and manipulated news to his advantage. That was the year before Google was born and the rest as we all know is...

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people" Twitter discusses all of the above and more We have all heard the famous line above and I am sure most of you agree with it. Now let’s try and apply the same logic to people on Twitter. The results are quite startling or obvious depending on how well you have been following trending topics on Twitter. Let me start from the end, I shall try to speak of people, then events and then ideas in the hope that my post goes from small to great! :)

Couple of months back I wrote a blog post called  “The Future of War: A Digital Doomsday”  where I mention that future wars would be fought in the clouds and giant corporations would try to eat each other, in the process only one of them emerging the clear winner. It already looks like Facebook has laid out the framework for its next assault and the first major casualty would be Twitter, followed by Google. One would be mistaken to think it is better technology that is driving Facebook but the fact is, the roots of the future success of Facebook lie in the very nature of human behavior. I will speak in great detail about that in my next post but in this post I would like to specifically talk of how Twitter is on its path to annihilation because of Facebook, and why it is very important for Facebook to do what Twitter does currently.

If the Pen is mightier than the Sword That makes the Book mightier than a Bomb And Internet mightier than a Cataclysmic Nuclear Holocaust If you thought the world is going to end in 2012, you are right. But it’s not going to be anything like you imagined. Wondering why and how? Then read on.

  Wondering what has gone wrong with my mind. Superman and Twitter? Yes indeed, it is a fact and I can prove it. You really can be Superman just by getting onto the Twitter bandwagon. What gives Superman the edge?  Apart from the ability to fly, he is wherever there is danger. He appears at the nick of time to save the day. Always! Let it be any remote corner of the world, as we are still trying to figure out whether what we are seeing is a bird or a plane, there he is, our good old Superman, ready to save the world, yet again. The mighty hero with the cape, the one who wears his underwear inside out, he is undoubtedly the most powerful man on this earth. What is his secret? The power of social networking. He is undoubtedly the man with the most connections in this world. He can hear everything that is happening in any corner of the world. Now, finally, we normal humans can challenge him at his game. All thanks to a little bird and the ubiquitous little‘t’ which when exp...