5 posts tagged “economist”

There is a really neat article in the new issue of The Economist here about social networks, the walls around them and how they are utilities hard to monetize - like webmails. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I thought the one below was very contextual and would say it all.

It is of course possible, that it is a recommendation engine of products - ones that I might need in the future since they have a lot of profile information about my life with startups.

Imagine: Startups can be a hairy ride

In the last few months, some of the major media outlets have been covering "happiness". The Economist had a special report on it, which I wrote about briefly here and and then today - The Wall Street Journal has its take on it here through an article titled: No Satisfaction - Why What You Have is Never Enough.  I had indirectly referred to when I said "it is your job to choose".

The above two are a little different from the happiness being pursued that I wrote about here since the above is after one has passed the basic requirements under Maslow's hierarchy of needs covered under the Physiological and Safety levels - food, shelter and a roof.

The Journal article states in the second paragraph the following:
"As a country, we are richer than ever. Yet surveys show that Americans are no happier than they were 30 years ago. The key problem: We aren't very good at figuring out what will make us happy."

According to the article, experts offer two reason: (1) We aren't built to be happy. Rather, we are built to survive and reproduce and (2) We're bad at forecasting

The Economist about other experts and how they attributed it to Habits and Rivalry

Different problems are being attributed to this state. Does it surprise you as much, as it does me, that people are are not identified - the people we choose to have around us.

Maslow brings it out in the third tier after Physiology and Safety as Love/Belonging to move on to Esteem (all categorized as Deficiency Needs) and Self-Actualization (categorized as a Growth Need).

It seems "Once an individual has moved past a level, those needs will no longer be prioritized."

In my personal life,belief and imagination, it has always been first about people that have brought me happiness - I learnt to move up 'that' hierarchy from my days in India but always, at each level, surrounded myself with the right people around me - Always! I still do and will do! It has been the 'rock' (The story about those rocks next) in my life.

Maybe the hierarchy needs to be revisited, maybe it is 'culture' - but eventually it is all about You, I ....We and our imagination of this world.

Imagine: There is no 'i' in Happyness

The latest issue of The Economist has a very interesting piece in its Lexington section called "American Idiocracy - Why the immigration system needs urgent fixing"

The article, as the sub title suggests, is about immigration issues in the US but dwells a lot on the movie - The Namesake - all along. The Namesake seems to be "an excellent new film" based on Jhumpa Lahiri's book. It is directed by Mira Nair of “Monsoon Wedding” and "Mississippi Masala" (starring Denzel Washington) fame.

Having been naturalized recently, I see a lot of parallels with this movie (and article):

• The bride is Bengali with an extended family in Calcutta: I grew up in Calcutta
• The bride swaps that extended family when she has an arranged marriage (with Mr Ganguli): I know many who have done this
• Gogol Ganguli, the son, acquires an All-American girlfriend: My name, Mrinal, is Bengali and I dated an All-American girlfriend too [and married her]
• This raises once again the main theme of “The Namesake”—the human side of immigration: I live(d) it
• But the children also endure a hidden war between their Bengali and American selves: I see this often, in fact, Indians call them ABCD - American Born Confused Desi. ["Desi" is the term Indians use to refer to themselves]
• The mother (the bride) returns to Calcutta with an immigrant's lament: she has spent the past 25 years missing India and will spend the next 25 missing America: I know a few Indian friends now who have consciously made decisions, for the family or professionally, to return to India
• The article ends with a request to "Imagine: how much poorer America would be without the likes of Mr Ganguli"

Personally, even with a name like Mrinal [A post on how that name has helped me later], I feel very fortunate that the "human side of immigration" I experience(d) is as close one can be to living a dream - I had a post on that journey here just before I became an American.

According to the article,“The Namesake” is worth watching for many reasons. It is a compelling study of personal identity".

As far as identity goes, since I landed, I am asked often how I feel about giving up my Indian citizenship (I believe India now supports dual citizenship) for an American one (and have enjoyed creative versions of my name). In order to keep this post short, my answer then and now is summed up perfectly through this earlier post from me - Imagine [There's no countries] and Carlos Santana's quote in my post My Last Few Days As An Alien.

I attribute this phenomenal journey to one strong belief: You,I ...We, of any race, nationality, sex, color, religion or title, are inherently the same - maybe in different phases of Mashow's Hierarchy of Needs - but deep down, We Are All The Same! At the same time, each of us is unique! Respect It!

Imagine: My "name" is Bobby, Ricky Bobby

Was working my way through this issue of The Economist and all of the above connected for me. The possibility of being in a web services' Hall of Fame seems to be driving user generated content and  hopefully happiness.

First - happiness is more and more being described as a "positional" utility driven by habits and rivalry. Habits since it depends on what we get inured to over time and rivalry since it is important for us to have something that others dont.

Many of the successful web services today are not only driven by user generated content (UGC) but more importantly by those of the power users. For example, one third of the articles submitted at Digg are those by the Top100 (which has now been removed) for example. That Top100 the or the LonelyGirl15s on YouTube are all a part of this virtual Hall of Fame. This is positional - not all get to be in it. This is not necessarily new either - the regular Hall of Fame (supposedly about 3000!) has always created a driving force for a lot pf people to achieve greatness. What makes the Internet Hall of Fame different is that 1) the barrier of entry is far lower and 2) you need to sustain it for some time at least to get anything really valuable out of it. Consequently one continues being committed to generating content before and after to stay ahead ahead of the pack and in the process, hopefully happier

What do you think?

Imagine: If there was only one fixed "top list' published one time by a site