Author: Vivek Srinivasan
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Brave
The times these days require one to be brave. To visit a supermarket nearby; to work outside; to just run an errand; you need to be brave. The pandemic has caused that kind of fear in the hearts and minds of people. But this blog is not about that. Sometimes you discover something and want…
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Learning by Proxy | Anger
I was watching the formula one race last weekend; it was a useless procession of cars. That sport has never been as boring as it is not. Despite having a commanding lead and having won by a huge margin, the victor could not even feign happiness for the others. Sports is not about enmity but…
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Two Steps Forward One Step Back
When people write history, they like to smoothen the curve and make it seem like a constant journey from one milestone to the next. But history is, if anything, really messy. It is a process of attempting to move forward while repeatedly falling back only to find your way again. Between 1800 and 1900, many…
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Learning by Proxy | Energy
This is one planet and so many things on this planet are shared by all of us. Our environment, the internet and so much more. Should nations take charge of these things individually or should some of them get regulated through a single authority? Splinternet After the Second World War, the American government was worried…
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Reimagine
In the year 1940, Alcoa came with the portmanteau by blending the terms Imagination and Engineering to create the term Imagineering. Disney took up the term in 1962 and called its Research and Development wing – Walt Disney Imagineering. The idea was to imagine something that did not exist and then to turn it into…
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Learning by Proxy | Antitrust – Travel – Economy
Whenever the stock markets have reached historic peaks only one thing has followed – a humongous collapse. Most markets across the world are either past or flirting with historic highs. When will the bottom fall out? It is a little more complicated. Apple posted a record quarter, that too in the middle of the pandemic.…
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2016 : FoodTech :: 2020 : EduTech
In 2016, there was an explosion of food-tech startups. These were not really food-tech. Frankly, there has never been much food-tech in India. What was deemed food-tech was just food delivery startups. It also happened to be a time when more and more wealthy Indians were getting involved in investing. Having seen Flipkart come from…
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Learning by Proxy | China
This edition became insanely long. I going to have to take some of the stuff that happened this week and move it to the next edition. Something significant is afoot in China and its relationship with the rest of the world. As a kid, I used to love cricket. Now and then there would be…
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Building for Change
One of the themes that everyone is required to contend with today is change. Change is inevitable and necessary in these times. Radical changes are being forced upon us and the world is adapting rather quickly to these changes. Humans hate change! Change in itself is not something that we take to, naturally. Humans tend…
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Learning by Proxy | Twitter – Innovation – Portland
Last week has been strange. Twitter was hacked – next level! There is a lot of other undercurrents, I plan to cover some of it next week. There is a lot for this week to unpack. India is spiking with COVID, it will be long before we return to any semblance of normalcy. In the…