Influence of Innovation

Innovation and Implementation of those innovative ideas are key factors for corporate success.  Let me backup this statement.  Lets look at some big names in the technology sector.  I have listed the average profit earned per employee for each company last year.

  • Apple       $ 125,000
  • Google     $ 214,000
  • Microsoft $ 156,000
  • Adobe      $ 108,000
  • Yahoo      $  48,000
  • Dell          $  33,300
  • IBM           $  27,000
  • HP            $  22,250

The list is arranged in a particular order.  The lower you go in the list, the lower the innovation from the company.  You will see that the profit earned per employee reduces as the innovation lowers (Apple is the only exception).

The higher the innovation, the higher the productivity of a company.  So, focus on innovation.

Writing

Kurt Vonnegut, the famous novelist, explain succinctly how to write.

Apples & Berries

Tons have been written comparing BlackBerry and iPhone.  A good one is here.  Apple just added a key feature, MobileMe, to iPhone which makes iPhone better than BlackBerry.  MobileMe is a service that wirelessly synchronizes all your information (e-mail, contacts, calendar etc) present on your computer and your iPhone.  Imagine this: you bump into a old friend while traveling on a metro.  You take his/her number and enter it in your iPhone.  If you have MobileMe, this new contact is automatically added to your address book on your computer (Mac or P

Elegant & Agile Dictionary

I use Merriam Webster or Dictionary to look up meanings.  Enter the new definr.  It is superfast and eschews ads.  I like it.  I wish they add thesarus too.  Thought you may find it useful.

Recycle C. F. Lamps

Many of us use Compact Fluorescent Lamps.  They are good for the environment and our wallets.  They consume far less energy and last longer.  However, there is a problem:  they contain Mercury.  When these bulbs are trashed the Mercury will leach from the trash into the land fill and eventually into underground water sources.  Once it contaminates the water, it makes it to humans in no time.  As some of you may know, Mercury is Neurotoxin.  Extremely hazardous.  Pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable.

Some use the above point as an argument against CFL’s.  That is not right.  Even though CFL’s have the potential to release Mercury, they are better than incandescent bulbs.  That is because, the biggest generators of mercury are the coal power plants.  Since CFL uses lot less energy than incandescent bulb, less electricity needs to be generated and less mercury released.  Overall the release of Mercury reduces when people switch to CFL.

So the bottom line:  Buy CFL’s, but recycle them.

More info can be found here 

Hard Part in Writing

Effective communication is when you present information to your reader (or listener) with the least amount of effort on his/her part.  One common misinterpretation of this rule is this:  the more the content, the more the effort the audience has to put in, so reduce the content.  At times this means that important background information is neglected and the audience looses the message.  The key is to be concise without sacrificing any key information.

This is what is hard about writing (or speaking).

Home, Some Snaps from NASA

Agflation

I am starting this habit called Lesson A Day. The idea is this: We learn something important every day. However we forget it. If we can record the lessons that we learn every day, we can review them later and refresh our memory.

Rise of Food Prices, aka Agflation

Food prices have been rising. Why? Financial Times gives four reasons

  • Rise in demand due to increase consumption of milk & meat in developing countries like India, China, Russia & Brazil.
  • Increase in oil prices.
  • Climate change is affecting the crop yields in many countries like Australia, India, England etc. The climate change is seen in the form of droughts and floods during crop growing seasons.
  • Use of farm land to produce Biofuels. US is the main culprit here. US is using more and more their corn fields to produce corn based ethanol. This mean that the corn supply for cosumption has reduced raising the price of corn.


Financial Times has a good post on this issue here.

I think in the future we may have wars on basic necessities like Food & Water.

Small Electronics Recycling Program

Clutter

We often have negative thoughts, say, Jealousy, anger, etc. Often they accumulate resulting in negative moods. These negative thoughts are the mind clutter. Eknath Easwaran has an excellent article on this “Clutter”.