21 Sep 09 Why I hate deadlines and love milestones
While there might seem little or no difference between deadlines and milestones for many, I think there is a major difference. It’s like the difference between running a 100m dash a number of times continuously and running a steady marathon. I hate deadlines not because they make me nervous or I feel threatened with the time-lines. I hate them because I hate the aftermath of a deadline. I am the kind of person who uses a large hammer on a tiny pin – hence I have failed many times. Failures are for another day. I am yet to learn the art of not using a hammer on small pins and hence also be a marathon runner.
So why do I crave for milestones rather than deadlines? I hate the aftermath of a deadline when I have the worst empty feeling of nothing to do. I am sapped of all energy and drive to start anything new. If I don’t have a plan ahead I am like a flight with no flight plan and ready to crash. Milestones on the other hand are a continuous plan to keep things going and there is always an after-plan. I like the regular – “yet to do list” than a deadline to meet. Maybe that is why I hate exams as there is no after plan. And maybe that is why I like to build things and take them to market. I hate to party after a product is made as the real work is yet to begin – get the first customer. Should a start up party after a product is launched? Absolutely NOT!! The only person that is done at this stage is the tech team. Others need to start proving things now and need to meet milestones and not deadlines and now same goes for the tech team. It’s a marathon and you need to keep up and not work on a start-stop schedule. Hence my love for milestones and a dream of running a marathon (yeah right!!)
Tags: Rant
20 Sep 09 Real-Time vs Delay Tolerant search – I
There is a rush towards real-time search spurred by the likes of Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Google (Google Wave), Microsoft (through investment in FaceBook) etc. While I can understand why the likes of Thompson-Reuters, AP etc would like to be in real-time search, it is hard to say what the future holds for others. Will our appetite for real-time search take over most parts of our internet search? Am I interested in news about M&A, investments, politics, economics, business, disasters etc in real-time? While I get the news, I am more interested in analysis and so is rest of the population (IMHO). So while the main real-time search contenders cannot gain more than getting us news at the earliest and impact a small part of our appetite for information, they do little to give us insight, informed choice and educate us little about issues we know and understand less.
I am interested in news but more in analysis, I would like to know which bank failed but also why and on deeper analysis of how. I would like to buy a product with a good deal of information about it along with some good analysis but not just be the first to know about it’s release. So while real-time search does well on information now – it is more concerned with news and little else. I would for example want to know what is reason or affects of certain economic, political or social issue which has little to do with real-time search. Also when I look at some real world actions like the best deal for a ticket to NYC . Can I do without going on multiple real-time search (inc Google, Bing etc) and comparison sites for days and get some informed choice? I think there is an opportunity for what I call “Delay Tolerant Search” which in my opinion solves bigger problems and I think we have a great appetite for solutions around this. This holds true for some of our daily actions on the internet and quality of articles – which is why Rupert Murdoch is leading the effort to get people to pay for great content.
Tags: delay tolerant search, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, real-time search, Search, Twitter
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