What’s on your mind? July 6, 2008
Posted by abheek in personal, technology.2 comments
I recently started brainstorming using mind maps, and have had a such a wonderful time doing so that I figured that is worthy of a post here.
Mind maps, for people who might not have heard of them before, are a visual way to represent thought processes. Wikipedia describes them as:
A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.
I have found this to be an excellent way to brainstorm ideas and organize my thought stream. The structured and hierarchical approach towards visualizing ideas seems to be very well suited to my style of thinking. The succinct representation of concepts in a typical map helps me to zoom into specific sub-ideas or zoom out to get a feel for the ‘big picture.’ Finally, the loosely structured form of the data helps easily move ideas, which often leads to a better way for me to internally re-structure thoughts.
I’ve used FreeMind (freemind.sourceforge.net, free, java-based, cross-platform client) and MindManager (www.mindjet.com, native mac client) so far, and both of them seem to be excellent ways to start using mind maps.
I would love to hear if other people have tried mind mapping and how their experiences have been.
Identifying the next big startup idea July 4, 2008
Posted by abheek in technology.3 comments
In one of my meetings yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur about how he started off on his ideas. Two things leapt out at me that are worth recording here:
1. Look for technology inflection points. Many successful innovators have used these inflection points to take on much larger incumbents successfully. NetApp took on the big storage guys with NAS+RAID, only to have Data Domain do the same to NetApp because of a combination of cheap and fast SATA drives and processors. Christensen talks about this in detail in his innovator series of books, but hearing about it from someone in the trenches reinforced this as an excellent way to identify opportunities.
2. Spend as much time with your IT department as you can. Its the single best way to identify pain points, or to apply your knowledge to solving existing problems in more effective ways. In fact, this was something I was planning to do when i came to Stanford, but in the heat of the school year it completely slipped my mind. Note for next year: spend time working with the Stanford IT setup, and see what that leads to.
Tomorrow’s forecast: cloudy with a silver lining July 3, 2008
Posted by abheek in business, technology.add a comment
Velocity. Cloud Camp. Structure. Three big conferences focused on a topic in the first three days of the week are as good a sign as any that there is intense excitement in that space. However, there’s a fine line between excitement and hype, and with all the buzz around Cloud Computing it’s hard to see what side of that line we are on.
GigaOM had an interesting post summarizing some of the arguments for why this excitement is justified.
Now here’s the cloud. It’s driven by five big things, none of which are hype, and all of which are changing the way we compute.
- Power and cooling are expensive. Today, it costs far more to run computers than it does to buy them in the first place. To save on power, we’re building data centers near dams; for cooling, we’re considering using decommissioned ships. This is about economics and engineering.
- Demand is global. Storage itself may be cheap, but data processing at scale is hard to do. With millions of consumers using a service, putting data next to computing is the only way to satisfy them.
- Computing is ubiquitous. We’ve lost our desktop affinity. Most of the devices in the world that can access the Internet aren’t desktops; they’re cell phones. Keeping applications and content on a desktop isn’t just old-fashioned — it’s inconvenient.
- Applications are built from massive, smart parts. Clouds give developers building blocks they couldn’t build themselves, from storage to authentication to friend feeds to CRM interfaces, letting coders stand on the shoulders of giants.
- Clouds let us experiment. By removing the cost of staging an environment, a cloud lets a company try new things faster. This is also true of virtualization in general, but by billing on demand the cloud means anyone can experiment.
I agree with each of these, but I think #5 is the first amongst equals, and here’s my set of five reasons why.
1. Time to market is crucial to the success of a company. As Mike Cassidy puts it, speed can be THE primary business strategy for a startup. When you are starting off trying to build a new company, there are times when the last thing you want to spend time and money on is building and managing an IT infrastructure. As the CEO of a top social network was telling me a couple of weeks back, their customers don’t care what infrastructure their product runs on, but they do care about how responsive they are to new feature requests.
2. As a corollary to the above argument, even when performance is crucial enough to the success of your application to warrant building in-house, there are often components that can be silo-ed off into the cloud. Currently these are often non-transactional applications that are not on the critical revenue path (like search, analytics, etc), but as we see some key problems in this space getting solved, that set of applications will grow a lot bigger.
3. There is a fundamental economic arbitrage that the cloud is able to provide to users. Very similar to the consolidation argument we used while selling VMware to early customers, the arbitrage opportunity lies in consolidating computing costs across time-zones, geographies and workloads. For example, a cloud provider can cater to workload characteristics that depend on time of day, time of year, geography and performance requirments by simply consolidating customers from across the world and provisioning for a lower peak workload requirement.
4. Computing on the cloud allows startups to match their revenue stream with expenses. The canonical example is a SaaS company that gets revenue every month from their customers. However, their infrastructure requires significant capital expenditures, which is a step-function that does not track revenue. Instead, the over-provisioning requirement means that they spend considerable effort tracking expected computing demand, and over-provision hardware to meet the peak load. Substituting that capital expense with a pay-as-you-go operating expense is a huge potential cost saving.
5. And finally, there’s scalability. While traditional scalability meant tuning applications to better utilize resources, decreasing hardware costs and changes in computing models have shifted the focus to scaling-out instead of scaling-up. As a result, language frameworks, programming models and application paradigms are catered to allow components that can achieve horizontal scalability. This lends itself very well to the cloud: scalability is now a function of adding newer instances on demand and removing them when load drops.
All this adds up to justify some of the reasons why people are excited about moving to the cloud, and why big dollars are being spent on it. Which brings us to the big question: what are the reasons hindering adoption of the cloud as the next-generation computing platform?
(To be continued)
Scalability redefined April 15, 2008
Posted by abheek in rants, technology.add a comment
I ran into this a few days back. Definitely one way to keep your web infrastructure scalable. Any guesses about the amount of revenue Macy’s is losing because of some developers’ sloth?
Living in suburbia November 12, 2007
Posted by abheek in b-school, personal.add a comment
Next week, we are biting the bullet and moving out of the city. The commute is a pain. I end up having to work extra hard to attend all the events at school. And finally, the long hours means we’re not able to do much in the city anyways.
For people who don’t know, I have been doing the commute from San Francisco to Palo Alto for about 3 years now, and haven’t regretted the decision to do so once. But when you combine that with 8am classes and late night club events, and intersperse a few free hours in between where all you want to do is hit the sack but cannot head home and be back in time, one starts questioning the reasonableness of the commute. This has been particularly bad since the exclusive academic period (EAP; everything at business school has an acronym. Don’t ask why) ended, and all the club and recruiting activities started.
Still, we are pretty scared at the option of moving out of our current apartment. It’s nice to have some of the best bars and restaurants within walking distance from our bedroom. It’s nice to be able to go meet friends and play in the park without worrying about getting back home in time. It’s especially nice to not have to look at the time of day (or night) before deciding to go out somewhere and eat. And it’s wonderful to be in a neighborhood and city that has a character and vibe unlike any other.
Menlo Park, here we come. Not too happily, but let’s try and get along.
The wonder years? October 16, 2007
Posted by abheek in b-school.add a comment
I keep getting called on whether I think the school experience has been any good. Do you regret your decision, or has it been worth it?
Here’s a quick sample experience. Strategy class today, and the case was on Cypress Semiconductors. Fairly run of the mill you might say.
At the beginning of class, the professor usually introduces visitors, most of whom are prospective applicants for the MBA program. Here’s how he started off today.
“I would like to introduce the visitors for today’s class. In the far right corner is Mr Narayana Murthy, former CEO of Infosys, and in the front row is ….”
Wait what?
Yeah. It’s that cool.
Oh, and I also lucked out and got a 45 minute 1-1 meeting with our ‘visitor’ later on in the day.
That cool.
There’s so much going on that I could go on writing for hours, but unfortunately, with all the work, I only have about, oh, 7 minutes to finish this entry. So we’ll have to leave all the details for later.
Thought stream September 11, 2007
Posted by abheek in personal.1 comment so far
- Bonnie’s offered to buy me an iPhone for my birthday, but surprisingly, I’m resisting. Lack of Exchange support, especially calendar and contacts synchronization, is almost a deal breaker for me now.
- Hospitals (especially ones in India) make me feel very, very guilty.
- Note to self: donate blood each time I visit India.
- School starts in 6 days. Let the madness begin.
- Looking forward to breaking in my new squash racket on the fancy Stanford courts.
The Pride of Dilli September 10, 2007
Posted by abheek in rants.add a comment
(This was written about a week back in Delhi, but sporadic internet connectivity confined it to my laptop until now).
Much has been written about the new Delhi Metro project. People have raved about how timely the construction project has been, how wonderfully high-tech the coaches are, how effective the air conditioning is, and how efficient the service is.
Bah.
Moving beyond the trite, here’s my list of top-5 reasons why the Metro is the coolest thing Delhi has seen since 1979 (which is basically the limit of my observability).
5. A new scheme of addressing. The first time I heard someone say, “My shop is on pillar 379 on the Dwarka line,” I remember returning a blank look of incomprehension. Turns out, each pillar on the elevated line is numbered, and that’s already a commonly used addressing scheme for people close to the metro line. Very interesting.
4. Capacity. The coaches are designed to have the majority of the people standing. Seating is only a single row along the sides of the coach. More people in the coaches translates to fewer on the road, which is A Good Thing. Combined with the smooth ride and the short length of the average ride, standing room only is not as bad as it might sound. And very, very practical.
3. Contiguous cell phone access. Don’t get me wrong. I despise your compulsive-cell-phone-user-in-public-places as much as the next person. But there is something reassuring about having uninterrupted cell phone service throughout the metro, especially in the underground sections.
2. Safety. Delhi is probably the least safe city for unaccompanied women. For that matter, women in groups aren’t statistically any better off. Traveling alone after dark is anathema to most. Not anymore. You can actually see unacommpanied women traveling on the metro late in the night, which is a sight not often seen in Delhi.
1. And finally, the coolest thing about the Metro. Political Correctness. Where else would you see announcements referring to “Physically Challenged” passengers. Not ‘disabled.’ Not ‘handicapped.’ ‘Physically Challenged.’
As people in California would say… Awesome!
The paths to power August 22, 2007
Posted by abheek in books, business.4 comments
I finished reading “The Polyester Prince” a good two weeks back, but things have been busy enough that I haven’t had a chance to post a good review yet.
I’m clearly not doing the book justice here.
For the uninitiated, the Polyester Prince describes the meteoric rise to power of Dhirubhai Ambani, one of the biggest success stories in Indian business. The first question that people always ask me about the book is why is it so hard to find.
Well, the answer there is simple. It’s a damning book, describing in great detail the murky side of doing business in India. It reads like a veritable whos-who of Indian business, politics and bureaucracy in the second half of last century.
Is the book accurate? While Hamish McDonald tries to describe sources where possible, given the subject matter, it’s very hard to verify the veracity of these stories.
The author’s writing style, however, leaves a big impression. McDonald writes with the panache of a seasoned journalist. Perhaps the most effective part of the writing is how he refrains from passing judgment, and instead relies on facts and figures to present vignettes. The authors breaks this restraint only in the last chapter, which is devoted entirely to an analysis of the morality of Ambani’s path to power. Even there, he chooses to leave open questions rather than attempt to answer them.
On the one hand, you can argue that Ambani was a person forced by the closed Indian markets to find ingenious ways to circumvent government restrictions. While driven by an ambition that seemed almost impossible to sustain, in the end his decisions were based on the archaic License Raj that plagued the Indian business environment. If one is fiscally conservative enough, you can even go as far as to argue that his actions were merely reactions to a stifled market environment, and that the decaying bureaucracy and legislature serve as reminders of the harmful nature of India’s economic policy in those decades.
However, one also cannot deny that his actions often strayed the thin line between ethical behavior and raw abuse of power. Through an extensive network of connections that he cultivated assiduously, Ambani was able to circumvent rules to destroy any serious competition that he faced. While the morality of these actions is debatable, one cannot but feel angry at a system that encouraged such corruption through an extensive set of rules designed to curb free competition and foster monopolistic practices.
This was one of the most useful texts on modern business I have read in a long time. Most such books rely on a list of case studies that serve to illustrate a theory which in hindsight seems almost obvious. By following Ambani through his career and exploring the details behind his spectacular successes and failures, McDonald brings forth a gritty account of doing business in India, one that is unencumbered by mere theory and instead relies on history to describe the underbelly of these paths to power.
Cut me up. Quick. August 18, 2007
Posted by abheek in rants.1 comment so far
I just need to vent this one.
It all started when I realized I’ll be a little short-changed in the medical insurance department after I quit work. So I figured, let me go and visit my dentist to get one last cleanup before I’m completely unable to afford her services.
And so it all begin.
I go into her office, expecting the worst. After all, three years of free carbonated drinks and candy are bound to take their toll on my cuspids and bicuspids and everything in between.
First off, why do dentists feel the need to make small talk when they have a high-torque drill a few millimeters from my nerve endings? I mean seriously. I know that it’s important to discuss your religious revelations and personal investment strategies with folks around you. But can it not wait until the killing machines have been safely stowed away.
Well anyways, once that was done, it wasn’t too bad. Like ripping a band-aid out. Over the course of 20 minutes. Always feels like a walk in the park after it is over.
As I’m about to get up and leave, she asks me to wait for a bit. “The x-ray results have come out,” she says. Seriously? Didn’t you just take that 2 minutes back? I hold back any snide remarks, afraid it might lead to a more prolonged stay in her not-so-comfy chair.
“Looks like you have a small cavity in the back teeth. Unfortunately, it’s obstructed by one of your wisdom teeth. Do you mind getting that removed so we can fix the small cavity?”
Well, it’s not like you are really asking for my opinion now are you? Ok, I’ll play along.
However, as it turned out, I needed to visit an oral surgeon to get the wisdom teeth removed. So I get a referral, realize that my insurance expires in a week, and go book the first available appointment for my wisdom tooth removal.
Wait, did I say wisdom tooth? The oral surgeon obviously heard wisdom teeth. As he puts it, “Well, they’re not going to be of much use to you, so let’s pull all four out shall we?”. *Smile*.
Again, if there’s one basic tenet I live by it, it’s this. Never argue with a man who’s holding a drill. Ok, we’ll play it your way, ‘Doctor’. I agree and try and get a date for the extraction.
“Oh, and by the way, I’m going to recommend you go to sleep completely while we do this. It’s not a pleasant experience.”
When a dentist says something is “not pleasant,” they usually mean it’s one level worse than debilitating pain, and only slightly above a vacation in hell. So yes, I’m not going to argue with that one either.
“Oh wait, let me see your teeth again,” he says. “Ahh, just as I thought. Well, Mr. A, looks like your lower jaw falls in front of your upper one when you close your mouth. Over 90% of people in the world have it the other way around.”
Well, my mother always said I was special, so no surprises there, ‘Doctor’.
“Perhaps we should fix this. What do you think?”
At this time, I again refer to above-mentioned basic tenet of life to live by. Ok, so what do you have in mind?
“Well, I’ll give you a consult with another oral surgeon. Basically, they’ll take your lower jaw, and push it back so that the upper one falls in front.”
Gulp.
“But of course, sometimes that doesn’t work. In which case, she’ll take a saw, severe your lower and upper jaws, push one of them forward, the other back, and then put them back again with some wires so that the upper jaw falls in front of the lower. Easy peasy.”
Wait what?
At this moment, I mumble something about needing to leave and walk out. I’m a wimp. Sue me. Dentists in the US probably have secret lives working for the government where they take apart unsuspecting citizens and stitch them together to form ultimate fighting machines to combat terrorism.
And they are probably very good at it. But as for my teeth, I think I can probably live a few years without going in for another ’simple cleaning.’
