Reflection

People spend their life in "the grind" or "rat race" and wake up one day and think where did the last 40 years go. One of the most fundamental principles of logistics is that you can not improve what you can not measure. I think this applies to life as well. So, I try to measure my progress every day by answering the following questions in my journal:

1. What did I do today to bring to closer to achieving my yearly objectives?
2. What did I do well today?
3. What could I have done better today?
4. What did I do for others today?
5. What was diamond of the day i.e. what did I enjoy the most today?
6. What did I learn today?
7. What couldn't I answer today?

It is amazing what ten minutes a day of reflection does to your outlook on everything. Try it!

People who taught me the value of measurement and reflection are Dieter Klein (former boss), Walter Zinn (former professor), and Tom Carter (former customer).

Innovation vs. tradition

Why do I love innovation and on the other hand when it comes to performing arts I love opera which is about 500 year old?

Knowing what you want

If you want to fly to Hong Kong, don’t take a plane to Rwanda because the Rwanda flight is cheaper.

Light

Why nothing can travel faster than light?

Humans

Why did humans develop ability to communicate with a language and not any other life form? How did humans develop emotion and not any other life form? How come we have the most developed brain of all life forms? How did countries, societies, cities, etc. develop? Why are the male/female characteristics common among all life forms?

Effective Executive2.0

I recently changed my "title" on LinkedIn from "Accelerator of Technology Adoptions" to "Effective Executive 2.0". Now, what does Effective Executive 2.0 mean?

The principles on which the executives 1.0 operate are:

1. Command and Control
2. Centralize-make as many decisions on your own as possible
3. Surround yourself with yes-men so that you always hear confirming data for your thoughts and ideas
4. Resist change ("this is how we do things here")
   
5. Linear approach to problem solving
   
6. Limited industry-specific knowledge
   

The principles on which executives 2.0 operate are:

1. Enable and leave "them" alone i.e. create an environment for the employees to self-organize (learning organization)
   
2. Decentralize-make as less decisions as possible and let the people make decisions at the local level. Focus on policy-making.
   
3. Surround yourself with diverse people who feel safe to share their thoughts
4. Embrace change (Recognize what worked in the past may not work in the future)
   
5. Multidisciplinary/Systems approach to problem solving
6. World awareness
   
7. Understand interdependence of all things
   

Your thoughts?

Language

What is the relationship between language and genetics? Why language evolved differently in different regions of the world?