Choose Your Expensive

 Human talent is expensive.

AI tokens are expensive.

Choose your expensive.

My sense is that it will be a balance of Human + AI that provides a decent RoI in the short term and makes ops sustainable in the medium-long term.

Idea for QComm Designers

 Dear QCommerce designers: Please consider adding the following delivery options:

1. Send in an hour or so.
2. Send anytime today.

There is a whole world of consumers out there that is not happy with the exploitation of workers. We would like to order from you, especially the things that are not available in stores, but cannot accept that people have to scramble because we could not do basic grocery planning.

We genuinely don't always need things in 10 minutes.

3 simple tips to save children from distraction

Almost all of Ted Gioia's posts are awesome, but the articles on cognitive health of teens and young adults are a class apart. Every once in a while, he shares a shocker. 

At The Children's Post, the MOST common advice that parents asked for was - How do I keep my child away from distraction? 

Not screens. Distraction. 

So, here are the most helpful tips (hardly anyone followed them, but don't ask what we noticed in the ones who did) 

A. Screens ARE distraction. 

They are not 'among the major' sources of distraction.  They are not 'the single largest source' of distraction. They are the ONLY source of distraction. In particular, zero screen time for kids below the age of 2, when their brains are developing fastest (faster than they will ever develop again in their lives). 

B. Meditation, Pranayama as early as possible 

These are not just spiritual practices. These simple practices also build focus and anchor the child for life. Of the two, deep breathing and pranayama is more helpful than meditation. You can follow any meditation practice of your choice. 

C. There is NO substitute for human interaction. 

Sit. Talk. Laugh. Touch. Hug. Fight. Solve problems together. Discuss world peace. Gossip. Play Board Games. Play Sports. Play hide and seek. Do Treasure Hunt. Make obstacle courses. Take trips. Listen. 

Children are not distracted. They are incredibly lonely. We are touching our children less. We are talking to them even lesser. Young adults and teens need as much face time as children, even if they mostly spend that face time ignoring you. Be present. And not with your phone in hand. 

If you want your child to respect you, respect them by putting your phone away when they are talking to you. 

Address them respectfully. Truly listen. Ask questions that force them to think more. 

Why UrbanClap is profitable but Uber will never be.

Dear Uber: You are not brokers. You are service providers. The customer does not call Tukaram. She calls Uber. 

Your service is delivered by service partners, who are in a profit-sharing contract with you. If you do not take care of these service partners, it is not their brand that suffers. It is yours. 

Given that your customer care and central brand oversight are non-existent, your entire service delivery depends on one person - your service delivery partner. The guy you are squeezing. The guy who can share his number with the customer at any time and get into a direct arrangement, leaving you out of the loop.

If you squeeze your driver partners to a point where being with you is purely a function of your mono/duopolistic practices, you will end up with high driver and customer churn, non-stop recruitment and CACs, poor delivery, and consistent brand erosion. 

It's not a bug, it's a feature of your business model. 

And therefore, you can not hope to be profitable. You are in the business of burning up public moneys. 

Here is another story. 

Urbanclap gave social benefits to ALL their service partners. It understood their specific needs and created benefits for them. When an Urbanclap service provider comes to us, s/he does not share their number. They say that a positive rating on the app means more to them than a direct order next time. 

Urbanclap's losses have shrunk, and they turned profitable in April 2024. 

Your losses, on the other hand, have widened considerably year on year. 

Short summary: Intermediaries are not brokers. They are service providers. Asset lean model does not mean abdication of service quality responsibility.

The Carlson Tucker Interview with Suchir Balaji's mother

 Last week, I watched the Carlson Tucker interview with Suchir Balaji's mother.

After the cooling off period also, my mind is NUMB at the travesty of justice happening here.

To be named a material witness but be provided NO Protection at all.

To be killed the night he returned from a holiday.

To have a wig at the crime scene and not even bother to examine it.

If he shot himself at one spot, why is there blood at multiple spots?

And I tend to agree with her - Suchir was not threatening someone's business. The punishment for that would be not having a job in the industry.

When our young professionals hear the stories of whistleblowers, they hear imprisonment in a single embassy for years, death, and at the very least, a transfer order. Just once, I would like them to hear a story that ends with success. So they learn to speak up.

#SuchirBalaji

2024 Reading Summary

20 books. That's one book every 18.5 days. 

Three non-fiction. The rest are all fiction, detective fiction, short stories, or poetry. 

One was a comic book and one was a joke book. 

Fewer Hindi books on the list than I would like. 

Have ordered 3 Punjabi books also. 2025 resolution is to start reading Punjabi and to read a lot more Hindi.  

First Target: Malvikagnimitram. 

Book Review: Rework

Nothing makes one read faster than the deadline of "Books Read in Year 2XYZ". The TBR pile depletes at a rather healthy rate, making the rest of the year wonder what was wrong with them. 

Rework came highly recommended by a Whatsapp group I truly like, and it did not disappoint. 

The book is a series of contrarian micro lessons from Jason Fried and David H Hansson, ably edited by Matt. 

But here's the catch: These lessons are not coming from an expert coach or academician (nothing wrong with those, just saying), but from practitioners - folks who have built their business ground up using these principles. 

Each principle is titled in a funny yet accurate way. The book's tone is very engaging. 

Here are my favourite three principles: 

> You need less than you think: Make do with what you have and get cracking. In time, you will need the entire razzamatazz, but you don't need everything set up just so before you can start working. 

> Don't scar on the First Cut: The first time someone comes into work wearing inappropriate clothing, don't make a policy. Counsel the person. Don't set up unnecessary rules to avoid the exceptions. Deal with the exceptions. 

> Inspiration is Perishable: You might have a great idea right now. That idea will stay, but your motivation to work on it will not. So work on the idea when it is still fresh.  

But my most favourite one is this, and its self-explanatory: ASAP is poison. Use your emergency tone only for real emergencies. 

Review 

I loved the book because a lot of this contrarian advice is actually what I practice. So, lots of validation. 

But objectively speaking, the tips are both simple and simplistic. 

 Not everything will apply to everyone. Not all tips will work for all organisations. 

Read the book, enjoy the witty language and the micro tips. But do not treat this as the Bible of building businesses. If, like me, you are contrarian, by all means, do enjoy the validation also. :)