Shane Parish: “Everyone looks for the miracle moment – the moment when success happens…The problem is … there is no miracle moment. If you want to understand success, you can’t focus on what’s visible. Results are simply one more step in a long chain of steps that led to that moment. Nature offers a great example with bamboo, which takes ups up to 5 years to develop its roots. For years, to the outside observer, no visible progress has been made. Meanwhile, the bamboo grows below the surface, developing its roots and storing energy. Then, all at once, it starts to grow. Years of stored energy result in exponential growth, sometimes reaching over 50 feet in a matter of weeks. That’s how results happen. Slowly and then all at once.”
Bharat Bhushan: “Two parallel narratives will play out in India for young people eager to join the labour force. The ground reality of tangible unemployment will vie with the perception created by events like “rozgar melas”. This duality between the real and the imagined is likely to continue till the next general election, with the Indian people free to believe one or the other.”
A Cato review of “Visible Hand” by Mark Hennessey: “The “invisible hand,” for instance, is frequently attacked by those who demand interventionist policies. Hennessey points out that the phrase appears only once in Smith’s great work, but it contains a profound insight into human nature. In a market economy, the way for a person to get ahead is by producing goods and services that other people are willing to pay for. The pursuit of self‐interest thus leads to harmony and cooperation. To those who might credit Smith for inventing capitalism (or blame him for that), Hennessey replies that Smith’s work was one of revelation: his insights into human interaction simply revealed how people go about their business. Because of that natural harmony of interests, no government economic planning is needed. Here’s how Hennessey explains the point: “All of our selfish buzzing and scurrying adds up to something bigger. It moves the world forward in a way we could never achieve if we woke up every day trying to figure out a way to move the world forward. That’s the invisible hand, not some big foam finger pushing you into the mall. Greed isn’t good, ambition is—ambition to improve your circumstances, ambition to feed yourself and your family, ambition to make a better life for the next generation.””
Sangeet Paul Choudary: “As the number of APIs increase and API provisioning gets increasingly fragmented, Integrators act as API switchboards enabling one-stop standardized connectivity and interoperability across an increasingly fragmented API landscape. On the supply/production side, an integrator aggregates product provisioning APIs across the production ecosystem, and on the demand/consumption side, it integrates across distribution environments (websites, apps, and other digital services) in the consumption ecosystem. Integrators emerge in any API-based distribution landscape and create value by organizing access across the ecosystem. Financial services, logistics, automotive, and travel are prominent examples involving mediation of APIs through integrator switchboards.”
Anu Atluru: “Ritual social apps aim to create regular, purposeful moments, even if small ones; they’re at their best as a mindful microdose of meaning and feel-good. In consumer social, rituals have been likened to just a feature, a mechanic, or a new entry strategy. They haven’t been celebrated as the main thing. But I see huge potential for rituals to be a core element of social products. In fact, I believe the next era of social will be defined by products that create rituals rather than habits…Rituals have meaning beyond the action itself; they celebrate the purpose, the “why” of a repeated action. A daily meditation practice or even a few moments of quiet while solving the New York Times crossword can be rituals that give us comfort and joy.”
