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Video: Larry Page on Applied Science
Sometimes you know why people are where they are and that’s well deserved. Take Larry Page, Google’s Co-Founder who gave a talk in February this year. As Larry being a PhD-droptout from Stanford University, his traits are very much that of a scientiest which you feel across the entire speech. If you got an hour and eight minutes, skip the daily soap and check this out:
Larry Page as the Übernerd is certainly not as a compeliing speaker as for instance Bill Clinton, yet what he has to say is pretty powerful. He talks about how Google as a company basically evolved by accident from a scientific project and how this could serve as an example for many other areas. What was critical in his view is to combine scientific excellence with entrepreneurial zest, business acumen and marketing focus. He moved on to talk about lots of problems that could and should be worked on from a scientific perspective in order to then build scale in the marketplace. One of his personal issues of interest is obviously climate change and green energy. He quotes his “favourite statistic” on the solar power that goes down per year in the desert of Nevada per quare mile – more or less the area that a nuclear power occupies. And it turns out that basically the amount of energy delivered as solar heat from the former equals that of nuclear heat from the latter.
Interesting also to follow Larry in order to get into the mindset how Google as an organization works on specifically defined problems: with small teams of around 10 people, with the experience to deliver the best results. During the Q&A session a lady from the audience wants to know how applied science could help building jobs. In a polite way, Larry defies the inner logic of the question by retorting “building jobs is not the key metric we should look at”. Rather he suggests, we should imagine a state of happyness in which we strive to live and subsequently build our capabilities around it. As an example he mentions that there were hardly any more jobs in U.S.-agriculture compared to a few decades ago, “and we still have enough to eat.” Indeed, that’s the best pleading for relentless structural reform through innovation propelled by a higher cause.
My YouTube Video on “Cutting the Blowfish” in Japan
You might be wondering why I am blogging today as if it was my last day in life. I am currently updating my cerebral Web 2.0 hard drive. And I am wondering in turn how how a piece of content gets appreciated – rather unexpectedly. I took this video 4 weeks ago in Tokyo which shows the poisenous Blowfish being cut by a skilled chef. The point is that the fish is still alive and moving throughout the procedure.
Interestingly, the 2:55 minutes film has been viewed more than 1.600 times and commented on a regular bases.
Comment (1)
Reloaded: Richard Gere and Sex in India
I wrote about it on Tuesday here, today The Economist has picked up the story as well. Richard Gere’s kissing of Indian actress Shilpa Shetty and the subsequent arrest warrant from a mentally disoriented judge.
There is hardly anything which stirs more controversy in India than “SEX”. Merely speaking out the word will make people either pale or blush. The level of hypocrisy is endless. I remember the story of a former employee of mine with whom I had built a good rapport. He mentioned that in the absence of his parents during their vacation, he had his girlfriend moved into the house. God beware that his parents knew. Not just about her moving in for a week, but for him actually having one. Him, who was supposed to be married off according to the choice of them.
Anyway, I congratulated him to his move of courage and and tapped him on the shoulder for his civic disobedience. Then I asked him if later in the future he would allow his son to move his girlfriend in when he was out on vacation. “No, Sir, of course not!”. – “What a hypocrite you are”, I replied. He had the final say with “Sir, that’s the beauty of Indian culture.”
Indian Economist Bhagvati on the European Union
Just before my departure to the airport for Tokyo to the EO-University , I came across this interview (German language) on Spiegel.de with the famous Indian economist Jagdish Bhagwati. In his charming ways he still sees a future for Europe, but jokes around that “Europe, you will not fall asleep, will you?”
In my view, the benefits of the European integration certainly do outweigh the challenges: First and foremost, looking back “only” a thousand years in European history, a period of peace at least within the member states for the last 60 years should not be taken for granted. It’s not just the “big talk” of the flat world, but definitely much earlier the good feeling of one Europe where it makes a difference to travel and to trade with one currency. Just to name one big achievement.
On the other hand, with my overall sceptism of Germany as one of the steamboats of the EU, one sadly has to add that there are two other countries which are even more notorious underperformers: France and Italy. All three together, part of Donald Rumsfeld’s famous saying of “Old Europe”, umfortunately possess a strong political and particularly economic weight in the entire European fabric. No wonder that under such a dominant leadership of gradually market-averse members, the club has developed into a cancerous monster of over-bureaucratization which badly requires radical reforms.
Mr. Bhagvati quotes the example of over-standardization for all and everything like the size of condoms. In that context Italy must have rebelled, because they wanted them produced 1 cm longer. Maybe that’s right when I am in the country for a visit and need to buy some, but usually the Italian size rather lies in the realm of microscopic measures – LOL
Shakira in Prague: Hips don’t lie
Prague, city of beauty, centre of history and home to Kafka. Once she instills her charm on you, it feels like a magnet that pulls you back for more. It’s been some 7 years that I had been there the last time – hence high time to a reloaded homage of presence.
The other side of the medal is clearly that hardly anywhere else the wisdom “you are not alone” is as true as in Prague. Although beginning of March is not even top-season for traveling, other people seem to fall for the same line of thought to pass Prague a visit on the weekend. Low budget travelers from Eastern Germany, likewise usually purchase power strong Japanese. Like this guy who pretends not to have anything to do with the “who is the gayest chap in da house”-contest by looking deliberately into the other direction – LOL
In contrast to my previous visits when everything was literally “dirt cheap”, prices have moved up steeply. In addition, cities which live to a good piece from tourism tend to develop an unpleasant environment of scams, touts and overcharging. After three years in India, my skin has certainly become thick and my attention vigilant to such stuff, but it becomes really annoying where you expect it least. And it goes like this, for example: All written guides about Prague warn you about the taxi drivers who want to take you for a ride. As you are on vacation and don’t want to be in constant “combat mode”, you ask your concierge a 5 star hotel to call you a taxi to bring you to a place 8 minutes away on the other side of the river. The taxi drops you, charges 350 Czech crowns and you wonder that this was quite expensive (EUR 12.-) compared to what your tour-book suggests. Back to the hotel, whereto you flagged a cab yourself, kept vigilant, the price for the same route amounted suddenly to only 150 Czech crowns, you complain about overcharge to which the concierge’s dry reply is: “Well, the 350 crowns are a fixed price, so you are comfortable that you don’t get cheated.” A Kafkaesque joke couldn’t crack better …
Everyone needs an anchor. Mine for coming to Prague was a woman, my undisclosed long-year companion, and another woman we went to see, listen and cheer: Shakira. Playing live on her “Oral Fixation”-Tour through Europe. One of the few artists I always wanted to watch in concert.
Her performance exceeded all expectations, especially after such an event I feel like starting to revalue the artistic work of music which goes beyond just an omnipresent sound-carpet running in the background. In spite of being a super-talented writer, musician, dancer, beautiful woman, Shakira’s appeal lies in her natural appearance which doesn’t need huge special effects or an army of choreographers. She is the show, the show is her and her truth is that hips don’t lie
“And I’m on tonight
You know my hips don’t lie
And I’m starting to feel it’s right
All the attraction, the tension
Don’t you see baby, this is perfection”
Prague and Shakira together, certainly the combination of accomplished perfection.
Sightseeing in Bangalore with Bavarian Parlamentarians
Yesterday I had great company in Bangalore: Two members of the Bavarian State Parliament who came to Bangalore on the occasion of the Indo-German Film Festival. As I have known Prof. Dr. Hans-Gerhard Stockinger since my time working for Bayern 3, he had told me a few weeks back already that he would come over. So we kicked-off with watching the German movie “Der Räuber Hotzenplotz” where he introduced me to his colleague Ulrike Gote. The funny thing to mention is that Hans-Gerhard is with the ruling CSU, whereas Ulrike runs with the opposition party from “Die Grünen”. Yet, in contrast to conventional wisdom from controversial, sometimes harsh debates from television, I was surprised to see them interacting in an extremely friendly manner, like colleagues do who respect each other a lot.
In that positive tune, I though: Let’s get them something really, really authentic South-Indian for lunch. So we went to MTR on Lalbagh Road, better known as the “Tiffin Place” where you get fantastic food, all you can eat at 80 Rs. (=EUR 1.80) per person which they seemed to enjoy a lot. A highlight of this place is the walk-out through the kitchen where you see in what diligent and clean environment the delicious dishes are being prepared.
Following a little shopping-spree around the “usual suspects” in Brigade Road and MG Road for tea and shawls, we rejoined for dinner to head to Jamavar, the Indian restaurant in the Leela Palace. We had plenty of interesting topics to discuss as they are both focusing on media, like for example being members of the Rundfunkrat of the Bayerischer Rundfunk as well as driving educational topics for their respective parties.
As the nature of the conversation was private, I’d like to keep it rather general at this point. In the nutshell, I felt that they were very concerned about Germany’s education system declining in the international benchmark, had different angles how to fix it, but at the same time a consensus that by just speeding up studying duration, the situation will not improve automatically. What they both supported, is increasing the number of studying seats to universities combined with delivering better tutorials without turning the system into a school-like pampering session. As expected, my own views were still on the most radical side: Lower taxes to release purchasing power, make parents/students more responsible for their own destiny by being free to apply to whichever university they want and finally paying a significant chunk of the fees out of their own pocket. At the same time I strongly support universities to be run more like corporations which are able to hire and fire their own professors and select which student they want to accept and which not.
First, in my opinion, it will make students more value their studies as they have to pay and second, it will turn the anonymity of German universities into true “almae matres”. As I am writing in English and the majority of readers for my blog come from the Anglo-Saxon sphere or India, they will rightly wonder: “What the heck is this guy writing about? We are not used to anything else than that.” Yes, that’s exactly the point …
Just enjoyed the last rays of light on my terrace as I am preparing myself for my “shuttle”, flight Lufthansa 755 from Bangalore-Frankfurt tonight. And Germany in full autumn reports some 2 to 9 degrees Celsius. Brrrr.
In the beginning was …
… the word, goes the famous biblical saying (John 1:1). Ignited by this spirit, the concept for the Holtzbrinck eLAB -blog I mentioned yesterday has progressed nicely. We are so far clear what we want to express, how we want to structure it, whom to involve and set a realistic expectation level:
Becoming the premier choice for smart people who want to see a good idea be transformed into a great company. A destination for entrepreneurs who want to develop a concept further in an environment of trust and experience supported by a powerful network. You might realized that I did not mention “money“ or “funding“. Right. Sure, cash is available as well, otherwise it would not be possible to get a good idea off the ground, but eLAB is not a VC. Call it incubator, or accelerator that is constantly improving on its key competency of evaluating ideas, failing as fast as possible to focus resources to the next task at hand, and successfully bringing promising concepts in the most sustainable manner „from lab to land“.
At the moment I am working on making that happen in a sort of „editorial concept“ which includes manifold stakeholders and multiple authors to contribute on a regular bases and next executing efficiently on getting the platform up and running soon.
As a funny and purely coincidental parallel, yesterday I gave a newspaper to Vikas Kumar, reporter at the Economic Times of India who is covering the topic of blogging CEOs. Somehow, he found his was to me. The key question was of course if there was ever an immediate “impact” (deal, sales) based on my blogging. I replied that this would be exaggerated, but interestingly quite a few people are reading the blog before meeting me for the first time. Expectedly, they would google my name and my name would appear in the hit-list at in the first place with my blog. And looking through it, they would see that I am “real”, find people whom I have met and understand roughly what kind of topics drive me. It is at least a nice starting point for a conversation, at best it provides and additional layer of trust when entering into a business relationship.
About Couples and Stags ONLY
This weekend will be full of work, never mind, to follow-up on the outcome of last week’s India tour. Weather is hot as usually, and I am preparing myself again for a brief Germany trip, flying out the night from Sunday to Monday. Everyone in Germany I talk to or exchange e-mails is totally upbeat as the weather seems to have finally turned into spring with temperatures in the upper 20s. Looking forward to my Munich beergardens.
Thanks for all the comments, especially and for me rather unexpectedly, the “Tuscon Verve” aka “Bangalore Gansta Rapper Club” has created some attraction. First, to clarify, no it’s not dangerous to go there. All da fellas in da house are brodas on one world, yo. Second, very sharp obervation: Where are the girls on all the pics? Ok, I tell you how it goes in Bangalore: Usually clubs would not even let in guys without a female companion. The exact wording in Bangalore from the doorman for this: “Couples only, no stags allowed”. From the linguistic standpoint it is mandatory that the “only” stand behind the noun it refers to. “Only” especially in South India is used in way more contexts than in British or American English so that when you come to India first you think: “What the hell are these guys obsessed with ‘only’?” Other example: Instead of saying about someone e.g. “She has a lot of money” I heard already “She has money only.” Or you ask someone: “Where are you from” – “I am from the Bangalore only”. Or: Instead of “I just came in.” you hear “I came in only.” Hilarious, isn’t it.
Ok, but back to the topic: As we were Western “Stags” (what a hilarious expression “only” :-), we would enjoy some sort of positive discrimination, or would one call it even affirmative action. I don’t know – only. Anyway, so we where let it and headed straight for the dancefloor, but no way to enter: A guard standing at the entry repeated the phrase which Indian guys get to hear at the door: “Couples only, no stags allowed on the dancefloor.” No expection. No positive discrimination. No affirmative action. Damn. Only.
Well, and so the story goes, that all the chicks alone do gather on the dancefloor, some with their boyfriends or whatsoever which necessarly renders an area where all the guys would amass. Yo, yo, I wanna hear you say: “German stag-brodahood in da House – only!”
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