Thought Garage

Found this interesting interview of Charlie Rose with Top Indian Entrepreneurs at  Charlie Rose. Little old, I guess recorded in March 2006. But I find this specific excerpt with Anil quite relevant and interesting.

Video URL

You might also find the following quite interesting.

• Nandan Nilekani of Infosys
• Azim Premji of Wipro

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

 

I thought for a moment, what difference would it make, if every blogger writes something about the issue? I remembered the Starfish story. If every blogger take one single action along with writing their ideas about the issue on thier blogs, it would make a huge difference. 

“The Starfish Story” by Loren Eiseley

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?” The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.” “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!” At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”

The Sun Startup Essentials program was launched the U.S. on November 2, 2006 on an experimental basis, and was launched in India on  August 8, 2007.  Sun Startup Essentials offers startup companies groundbreaking Sun technologies and software at breathtaking prices or free.

For more program specifics, take a look at the Sun Startup Essentials Datasheet.

• Free Software : Get popular open source software, such as Apache, MySQL, Perl, etc. — all optimized for the Solaris operating system, free for the asking.
• Discounted Systems : Get rock-bottom prices on industry-leading Sun systems and run the OS of your choice.
• Discounted Partner Hosting : Get top-notch web hosting from Sun partners at great discounts.
• Startups Ask Sun : Our professional engineers will talk with you through emails and will try to answer your questions.

Product Workshop on -What & How to build Challenges of a Product Business

NASSCOM presents a workshop  on “What & How to build Challenges of a Product Business”.

The NASSCOM Product Forum has identified the need to guide entrepreneurs who have business ideas in the software product space and are striving to get those ideas off the ground. This workshop would contribute towards creating a software product ecosystem in India, learning from the experience of Silicon Valley, Canada, Israel and other technology centers. This Product workshop will be led by experienced people from technology, business and venture funding backgrounds who are keen to contribute to aspiring product entrepreneurs, Product Companies, Product teams and Incubating companies. 

Venue/Date: 9:00 AM To 5:30 PM 01 September 2007, The Royal Ball Room, The Leela Palace, Airport Road, Bangalore

Click on Event Page Link for more.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central belief of western societies: that freedom of choice leads to personal happiness. In Schwartz’s estimation, all that choice is making us miserable. We set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them, and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, whom and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too many choices undermine happiness.

Source: TED | Talks | Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice (video)