Out Of Line

Here I plan to write some of my thoughts which are not in line- as of now- with the conventional accepted wisdom or thoughts. That doesn’t mean that I am not open change my mind. Or that I think I am right and others are wrong. Maybe I am just not convinced yet. Or maybe it bothers me that some of these are not in line with the worldly wise. For example, some years ago a friend of mine said (something like) she believed in feminism but she felt that sometimes they were just trying to prove a point. I am not knowledgeable about feminism but my point in mentioning this is that it is not about right or wrong. Feminism is an accepted thought and she was not fully sold on it, so to say.

I may update this space once in a while. I don’t bother much about conformity. So I am in no hurry to convince myself that I must change opinions in these matters so that those are in line with others. I need to know more.

1. Resources

   I have often heard that limited resources give rise to innovation. But I think that not having enough resources restricts you. I would have abundant and unused resources than not have them. (And ill-used or wasted resources- though even while typing this I feel that we should use resources wisely.) Of course, having plenty of resources does not guarantee anything. Having garageband on your iPad does not necessarily make you a musician but IMO such things help and not having the options restricts us. I see school boys with new DSLR cameras taking pictures of anything and everything in their sight; and treat this as an experience. Some of it maybe overindulgence and pampering, etc. (And sometimes it stinks of new money, first generation riches, etc.) But I think this phase passes. In the book Sapiens the author mentions that children these days have their own rooms with doors which can be shut/ locked and parents respect the privacy and space whereas ‘the teenage son of a medieval baron did not have a private room on the castle’s second floor, with posters of Richard the Lionheart and King Arthur on the walls and a locked door that his parents were not allowed to open. He slept alongside many other youths in a large hall.’ So some of it may be cultural, generational thing. Most people a few generations back did not take vacations. Availability/ abundance of physical resources may be a recent thing. But I think I would rather have it (abundance) than not have it.

2. Natalism

   I have heard from people I respect and knowledgeable in these matters (finance/ welfare economics, etc.) that large population is not a bad thing. (Musk seems to a prominent natalist- of the view that you should have many children. On a side note, I understand some of his actions and noise he makes but I don’t particularly respect him- since his weird solution to rescue children trapped in that Thialand cave. Earlier I respected him- among other things- for his quote ‘Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can.’) I do believe that population growth rate adjusts itself. I know that there is huge data available supporting this. Also, I have heard it said that people are not just mouths to be fed but brains to think and hands to create. And I think that is true. But from Indian perspective, I think that while there may be some truth in that, it’s somewhat disproportionate. Not you and I, but in general, people should control population growth. For India, to me, huge population still seems a drain and a restrictive inertia. Maybe it will be unstoppable force once it gains progressive momentum. Has it already gained that momentum? No.

3. Formal Education

   Not Indians but a lot of people- particularly in IT- say that formal education is not necessary. I disagree. I think their opinion is a survivorship bias. Formal education is a bit costly and getting costlier. But from my frame of mind- education is one of the best investments. And formal education is- IMO- an easier way than many other ways to educate oneself.

4. Employees before shareholders

   A noteworthy thing from the acquired.fm’s Starbucks episode was that the ex-CEO said “At the time when I was trying to restore the company back to health, clearly mistakes were made. This story is still unfolding, and my heart’s with the company. The thing that I think was lost in the story is the shareholder is not the primary person. It’s the Starbucks partner in the green apron, which is the cloth of the company. If we exceed the expectations of the cloth of the company and our people, shareholders and customers are going to win. That’s been my whole life story.” This is quite contrary to the accepted wisdom. In fact, this is the first time I have seen the priorities reversed (employees vs shareholders). One of the first shocks of my career was when ex CEO of my company- let’s call him Mr. Murty- in employees’ town-hall meeting (or all-hands-meet if you are a circle-back kind of person) said that the priorities of the company were: first its stakeholders, next its customers, and then the employees. I could not make sense of it. I was then and still am much less knowledgeable, experienced or confident than him in these areas to reject his views and have full confidence in contrary views. (He has said some foolish things over the years since. But in some of those areas I have enough maturity and strong views to ignore/ reject his bullshit. Remember, you fall to the level of bs you can’t detect.) Coming back to the point- this (Starbucks interview) is the first time I have heard employees put ahead of shareholders. An unsaid thing (which he mentioned later in the episode) is that employees and baristas are important because Starbucks is ‘not a beverage company serving coffee. We are a coffee company serving people.’ And this is also apparent in his views on mobile app vs store experience and in earlier parts of interview as well. So I think he’s sincere in his views. IMO, putting shareholders before customers like Mr. Murty did is non-sense. But I am not sure whether, for a listed company, putting employees before shareholders makes sense or not. Although I instinctively like what he says, there may be something of wishfulness there. Anyway, the thought seemed out of line and I should deliberate if it makes sense.