It doesn't matter

August 14th, 2011

Numerical Thinking about Charitable Giving

8/14/11 07:46 pm

We can get quantitative while tackling any question or thinking about any activity. I was thinking about monetary offerings during a catholic mass.

- What percent of people in church actually put in something?
- What is the distribution of donation amounts? Are most people likely to give exactly one currency note? If so, it will be easy to get the distribution.
- Is there a difference in the generosity of the people going to different masses during the day?
- How does my offering compare to that of the rest?
- Are people likely to donate more if the sermon stressed on charitable giving?
- Will people donate more if the offering bag was transparent and they could see at a glance the denominations of currency notes? In general, does having transparent offering boxes motivate more people to give? Will a picture of a child who is likely to benefit from the donation help people make an informed decision, give more and be more satisfied?

Now armed with this information, will putting up a board showing the distribution like this outside church prompt people to change their donation amount?

Donation Amount	%
1-10	50
11-50	30
51-100	20

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October 24th, 2009

EOTI

10/24/09 10:26 pm

One of the first email forwards I got was this link, still quite afresh in my mind. In this age of flash, RIA, Silverlight, Adobe AIR and what not, the timelessness of this page (with five lines of HTML in its body) is amazing.

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September 2nd, 2009

Video Camera Muthalaliyayi

9/2/09 09:38 pm

I flipped for the UltraHD. I think I am in love with it. My wife is frowning. I better take her video and calm her down.

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August 1st, 2009

The end point should be decisions, not dashboards

8/1/09 10:48 pm

The endpoint of BI should be decisions, not dashboards, but it seems to have taken an inordinate amount of time to get to this place.

http://www.intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2009/07/spss_is_not_the.html

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October 19th, 2008

R2I

10/19/08 03:09 am

Only Jeffrey Archer, Dan Brown and Eric Williams made me read this late into the night. This is the first time that I have lost so much sleep over a non-fiction work. Here is a very well written article on the topic:

"Return to India: One Family's Journey to America and Back"

I bounced around a lot of Web pages before ending up there.

December 8th, 2007

John Maeda

12/8/07 12:16 pm

I came across John Maeda on a TED Podcast. I think about simplicity and how to infuse it in my day-to-day life. It was interesting to hear about a book written about it. "Simplicity and complexity need each other." is John's fifth law of simplicity. It makes sense. If everything was simple, then nothing is. Contrast is necessary to qualify any concept.

Moving on to a very different thought, how can I appreciate Piet Mondrian's Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red shown below?

,

What was Piet thinking?

Tags:
design

October 25th, 2007

Heth and Jed

10/25/07 09:23 pm

It was a rainy day in Manhattan today. I thought I will reach Penn Station well on time for the 5:54 train. The crowd in the 34th Street–Herald Square Subway station was thinner than usual at 5:45, most people armed with umbrellas, rushing on their way to face the cool evening air and drizzle. I had the same idea when I was half-running up to the upper level.

I heard the music halfway up the stairs. I had not heard anything so pleasant for a long time. Two guys, one with long hair and the other looking the silent type were playing under a banner Music Under New York. The usual amp, open guitar box for change and CDs were on display. The underground stage with a mild echo seemed to make the music stand still and do the same for some of the commuters.

Screw the 5:54.

The guitars sang like they were born of the same mother. They were so in line with each other. The backup vocal sprang up so intelligently at the right place at the right time. Enough said.

Check out Heth and Jed.

Current Location: Edison, New Jersey, USA
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Heth and Jed - Desert Sun
Tags:
acoustic

October 13th, 2007

Eastern Philosophy and Western Business

10/13/07 07:39 am

I finished a nice book by Sri. Eknath Easwaran, titled Take Your Time today. Sri. Easwaran teaches doing one thing at a time and devoting undivided attention on it. While I was reading the book, I came across an article titled Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time in the October 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Tony Schwartz, the author, talks about taking time to recharge you body, emotions, mind and soul.

Here is an excerpt - "E&Y’s hard-charging Wanner used to answer e-mail constantly throughout the day—whenever he heard a “ping.” Then he created a ritual of checking his e-mail just twice a day—at 10:15 am and 2:30 pm. Whereas previously he couldn’t keep up with all his messages, he discovered he could clear his in-box each time he opened it—the reward of fully focusing his attention on e-mail for 45 minutes at a time. Wanner has also reset the expectations of all the people he regularly communicates with by e-mail. “I’ve told them if it’s an emergency and they need an instant response, they can call me and I’ll always pick up,” he says. Nine months later he has yet to receive such a call."

It is possible that Tony Schwartz was influenced by Sri. Easwaran or vice versa. It is fascinating how similar they are, albeit coming from very different spheres of thought.

Ever noticed how "Sir" and "Sri", both used to accord respect, are similar?

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Faint murmurings of my hard drive