Tag Archives: idea

DON’T Click That Link!

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I am an addict. I am addicted to browse my Twitter timeline, facebook newsfeed or email and click tons of link about anything that smells even remotely related to my topics of interest which again are almost as wide as Amazon’s product catalog.

As you might have guessed, it is not a particularly good thing to keep clicking link after link, opening browser window after window and then shuffling between the read/unread links and your work. This behavior is equivalent to having your arteries clogged with cholesterol only to be waiting to have a heart attack except it’s not the heart attack that kills you but the daily grind of too many links begging for your attention and the overloaded/ever slowing system.

Despite wanting to get over this stupid habit of reading more and more for some time now I couldn’t fix it, but something in me clicked yesterday when I decided to close all the open links on my laptop. Since they were all choicest articles/site discovered accidentally( or with planning ) over weeks I decided to save them temporarily in a google docs spreadsheet. By the time I was done, the spreadsheet had some 131 links. Exactly. WTF?

While doing this it occurred to me that *MAYBE* it would have been nice to have a “link saving/queuing” website/app. Here’s I think would be a nice utility to have(at least for me)

Problem: I need a service that let’s me save/hold all the various links that I find everyday, which look interesting and I’d want to read/skim them over free time.

Solution: A link buffer

How it works: A browser bookmark or a URL based utility which can be used to put all these seemingly good links in temp memory(stored unless you choose to delete).

Random Execution Work Flow: Spotted a link that you’d like to archive for future reference?

Append  the url to a predefined url format for ex: http://savemylinks.com/mayankdhingra/newlink=”insertlinkhere”

PS: The site will redirect you to the login page if you aren’t signed in already.

So now whenever you are free, you can go to savemylinks.com to see what all links you had saved and browse them. Based on your preferences you can choose to send them to delicious or anything bookmarking site or post it on Twitter/Facebook.

But by the time I or someone else builds this app. It might a good idea to archive these links in a notepad or google docs spreadsheet and read them later when you have more time.

Update: Apparently there’s a site called instapaper.com which does just that. (Thanks @guglanisam for the tip)

Patch Adams & The Difficulty of Being Helpful

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If you are an Indian and watch Hindi movies, chances are you must have heard of the hugely popular film “Munnabhai MBBS” starring Sanjay Dutt(as Munna) and Arshad Warsi(as Circuit). I too like millions others watched and re-watched the film to cherish the beautiful message of putting the human touch in Medicare and focusing on improving patients quality of life.

While the film was great, I (and most others) didn’t know that it was inspired (not copied, ok?) from Hollywood film Patch Adams. The bad bit is that Vidhu Vinod Chopra and co didn’t even bother to give credits to the film or the man himself at the end of the film.

Me and my brother happened to see the film yesterday and loved it to tears.  The best thing about the film however is that it’s based on real life story of Hunter “Patch” Adams . There’s nothing more beautiful and inspiring than a honest pursuit of  simple philosophy which one holds dear.

My immediate reaction after finishing the film at 1:30AM was to read more about the real Patch Adams and here’s what I found. There’s indeed a  Gesundheit Institute (you can read more about it here http://patchadams.org/) and Dr Patch Adams is alive and still trying to revolutionize the system.

While some of us might expect that after two films by two of the biggest film industries (Hollywood and Bollywood) things would have changed for Dr Patch Adams and Gesundheit Institute for good but sadly none of that happened, no big donations came forward their way and their team had to struggle to get the project off ground.

This talk shares more details about the real deal

What’s disappointing really is the fact no big names and not enough smaller ones came forward to support such a noble cause. Is it too Utopian to be true?

What do you think is the real reason?  What would it take to catch fancy of the Social Media Generation?

PS: Really bad of the film maker Tom Shadyac and co for not doing anything for Dr Patch’s work

The Idea Zone

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I am one of those whose minds are mostly occupied by something or other related to their work. It’s something I’ve grown into ever since I stopped working for someone else about three years back . Whether it’s execution details about a feature/project or a new idea all together I am mostly thinking and when not thinking something in particular I am thinking about thinking. While doing the  latter, I’ve realized that I like many others have some favourite spots for specific things i.e a preferred place for watching a film, having chai or taking a stroll.

most of my thinking/ideation happens in a cafe
(Photo Credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31383314@N03)

When you are at this preferred place doing what you like doing you are at your natural optimum best. For some strange reason I’ve always felt that I could brainstorm better/longer if I am at a different/unusual place. Not surprisingly it has turned out to be the case indeed. From reading a business book to ideation on a business idea Cafes and open spaces(esp Parks) seem to work very well for me. I’ve spent quite some time by myself sitting in a cafe sipping cappuccino  reading a book or scribbling ideas with a pencil at a park.

Another place where lot of interesting big/small ideas pop in my head is while having bath. It’s been quite a few times now when I have gone to shower with a thought seed and have come out with a cool idea ready to be detailed and execute. Obvious as it sounds, most of us need an optimum environment to be at our productive best but despite it being so obvious we tend to not take it seriously. I for one don’t go to a cafe everyday/every other day.

Maybe we all should try to identify such zones and try to visit them more often. What do you think?

It’s About Being Remarkable Stupid

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I’ve been a great fan of Seth Godin ever since I read ‘The Purple Cow’ early last year. I really liked the book and am re-reading it again

 

purple_cow

The book talks about how a product/idea needs to be remarkable to able to spread like fire and succeed. The books lays emphasis on how marketing should be a part of product design and not just a follow up process after product development.

Call it a co-incidence that while facebooking I stumbled upon a link that led me to ‘Easy Tiger Corp’.

[Disclaimer: The content below might hurt your senses]

Easy Tiger Corp seems to have taken a leaf from Godin’s purple cow by offering something remarkable(weird?). Easy Tiger Corp (ETC) makes pre-stained clothing that free people from the embarrassment of having soiled clothing by selling clothes that come already soiled and thus making it a personal decision to wear soiled clothing and not a source of embarrassment.

Sounds weird? You are not alone in thinking that. But I wouldn’t get into how good/bad the idea is but I’d like to point out the fact that irrespective of how good/bad it is, it makes people talk.  The product by it’s sheer design has a lot of remark worthy points

1)  ‘Pre-stained’ clothing : When everyone is selling you detergents to remove stains, here come’s a product with in built stains. Readers from India might recall Surf Excel’s ad ‘Daag Acche Hain‘ (Stains are good) with completely opposite stand towards stains then what’s taken normally

2) Sense of Humour: With a product like this, you need a lot of confidence and sense of humour to do business and looks like the ETC folks have got it all. A quick look at the story of how the idea happened on their about us page and the on your face FAQ page confirms the same.

3) Hate all/Love some: Pre-stained clothing is clearly not a mass market product. In fact it’s quite the opposite it’s a product that most people will hate but a selected few will/might love. Then again the chances that those who like the idea or product will on average talk to more people about it.

To get more attention ETC has launched two contests since their inception in July 2009 namely the ETC YouTube Ad contest and the super remarkable ‘World’s Dirtiest Underwear Competition‘

ETC has been getting some coverage in the blogosphere and it remains to be seen if Philip the guy behind the company would be able to leave his day job and jump into ‘Pre-Stained’ clothing full time. But what ever the case be, the point of this post is to share an example of a remarkable idea and product and how easy it really becomes to market them. Also, keep in mind being remarkable is quite different from being ridiculous.

Is your product/idea remarkable?