Netizen

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Vivek Wadhwa I Know Is A Feminist

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 28JAN11 - Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook, USA; Young Global Leader are captured during the session 'Handling Hyper-connectivity' at the Annual Meeting 2011 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 28, 2011. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Jolanda Flubacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am not even aware of the full conversation, but I caught a snippet first on his Facebook page, then on Twitter. Strange things are known to happen in social media. You don't have to be female to be feminist. And for me the term is like saying someone is a civil rights activist. Sheryl Sandberg is a feminist, in my book. And Vivek getting called the opposite --- well, it is fun! Really. I am like, really? He is a rare man who makes intelligent, well thought out, numbers supported cases for why women should get more in tech. Few men cheer women, fewer still make strong, well thought out cases. Vivek is in the rare category. That is the truth. But don't let truth get in your way. Enjoy Twitter! It is the experience.

@ElissaBeth having seen backlash @wadhwa has received, I'm not sure it is worth it for men to stand up for women's rights. I hope I'm wrong.
— Sahil M. Bansal (@SMB06) February 15, 2015

Looks like the spat even got colorful!

.@ncweaver And are you helping women by spreading such slander? When professors meet students, is there a threat to the student?
— Vivek Wadhwa (@wadhwa) February 15, 2015

My response to the podcast that unfairly attacked me

Vivek Wadhwa is not just another dude who writes articles. He is the smartest dude in Silicon Valley. Yes, I did say that. He talks in terms of the trillion dollar industries of tomorrow, in ways only a free thinker can. Top tech CEOs in the Valley can not afford to. They need their horse cart blinders to keep their focus on the narrow stretch that is their company.

The funny thing is, he is not only on the cutting edges of innovation, he is also on the cutting edges of gender in tech. Take his name out and circulate his articles on the topic and compare them to writings on the same topic by top rated feminists. His are more effective. He is outdoing wo-men on gender! That is no small feat.

But a little color on Twitter never hurt.

This is a dude that I want sitting on my company's Board at the earliest possible opportunity. For the record.

The Tragedy of Losing Vivek Wadhwa as an Ally

The Unimaginative Motherfuckers Of The Old Economy

They say there is this cultural divide between California and New York City. All of Silicon Valley money comes from NYC. But California has the cultural advantage.

I have been aware of this. But I am staying put. Because, well, this is hometown. Also because the app I am working on -- this city is going to be the number one city for it. It will take your interactions with the city to a whole new plane.

And it is okay for the old economy to be in the backdrop. It is more than okay, it is actually very necessary. The apartment of AirBnb is old economy. Uber's cab is old economy. And they are just scratching the surface. The next wave of innovation in software is industry level. Which means we need people who can reimagine entire industries. Coders can be provided to them.

But when I say the unimaginative motherfuckers of the old economy, I am referring to this other type. Not only do they not get cutting edge innovation, they do not get the fundamentals of a tech startup, they actively act hostile given the opportunity. And there are a ton of those, plenty with Indian/brown faces, just to be fair. But it is equal opportunity, truly so. Like this guy on Wall Street who, believe it or not, wanted to do a tech startup, who would call VC money "funny money." Good luck with that. Or this dude who had a job where success was doubling the money every five years. Point be noted, money doubles on its own every seven years. All you have to do is not mess it up, just stay out of the way. Don't tinker. And he deals with big sums! I guess two years faster is still a margin, but then don't start commentaring on tech startups, in the negative, spilling one ignorance after another.

Very few people will do the tech startup thing. By definition. So it is not like you need 100% participation. And there is an affirmation you seek among other startup types. There is that ecosystem. It is a small island in a sea of the old economy, and that is the way it should be.

You do want to stay close to your average users. You do want to meet regular people.

But the unimaginative motherfuckers are a whole different thing. They lack it. They don't know it. And they will meddle if they can. Heck, they might even start a company!

Race, Gender And Tech Entrepreneurship

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Race, Gender And Tech Entrepreneurship

When you are in the political mindset, you are trying to add your little energy to the larger collective energy which, you hope, is trying to move towards a more perfect union. You look at the large arcs of history.

But in the tech entrepreneurship mindset, you don't have the luxury of time, you have to execute, you have to move, you have to play the hands you are dealt with. I think for the most part it is about innovation and hard work, mostly just innovation. If you can take yourself to the cutting edges of innovation, you will, for the most part, win. If you have the stomach to take the risks, to make the jumps. But you don't really have the privilege of theory, or at least not as much. You don't have the privilege of the monk option, where you choose to live on little to give a larger push to the historic arc towards a more perfect union. You have investors, you have team members, you have customers to please. Money is as good a metric as any. You have to make the moves that make the money. Maybe there is not time to watch a change of heart unravel.

You have to move. For the most part you rely on innovation and hard work and charisma. But there are times when you just have to hit back. You might not be black, or Indian, or female, but maybe you are dumb, and fat, and lazy, and ignorant. And being dumb, you need to be called on it. Or maybe you just have a funny face. How about ugly?

You hit back hard and fast. You sting a quick sting. You take a quick bite. Everybody but everybody is at the receiving end of something or the other. You do that to clear up the deck a little so you can quickly go back to innovation and hard work. Innovation is its own sexy. A relentless push to the cutting edges of innovation allows you to wallow in the high clouds of the post-ISMs individuals. Because, we are relentlessly trying to move towards a meritocracy.

The best ideas could come from anywhere. The talent pool is global. If you don't cast your net wide, you lose.

Even without race and gender issues, tech entrepreneurship is plenty of fights. You have to take down an old building to build a new one in its place. That takedown process can feel like violence to some people. Feelings are going to get hurt. But that is how progress is made. The old has to make way for the new. And the new has colorful faces.

Be bold. Take the risk. Sting.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

A Like From Sheryl Sandberg

Saturday, February 07, 2015

The Ultimate Megacity: 100 Million People

100 million people: the biggest Megacity in the world.
A mini earth in terms of cultural diversity.
Everyone who lives in the city boundaries votes in the city boundaries.
DC to Boston.
The backbone: a bullet train. You could live in downtown Baltimore and work in Manhattan and not even think about the commute.

JFK to Penn Station and Newark to Penn Station: short distance bullet trains. To get you there in minutes.
Dedicated Caribbean organic farming to feed the Megacity. I don't know about you but I like mangoes.
100% electric vehicles in the territory. By law.
A next generation industrialization in the entire Eastern half of the US that is 100% feeding on Clean Energy.
WiFi in every inch of the territory through the TV spectrum. Free. Telecommuting should be the norm in the workplace, partially or fully.
The NYC Subway will have to be reimagined. Levitate it. Extend it. WiFi 100% everywhere. People will be having business meetings in there. No coffee though.

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Winter Snow In Central Park

Monday, February 02, 2015

Winter Conditions

The Most Powerful Scene In Interstellar

You always thought Matt Damon was Da Bomb (I have watched the Bourne movies more times than I can remember, they are better than all the Bond movies, I used to watch Heat the same way) and Matthew McConaughey was the sidekick, the also star. That changed for me after Interstellar. McConaughey emerged clear. Late blooming is in.

I am really into movies. I love watching them. My favorite celebrity is a movie star, not a politician or a tech entrepreneur. I don't think that means I ought be in the movies (although I do want a small role here and there, get me in as an extra, maybe I will sip coffee in some scene, I don't have time for a full role, and maybe talent is also required, although I did win a best actor award in middle school, just like my favorite movie star). I think that means I think overwhelmingly visually. Words come to me later. First I think through abstract images. And once the thought is formed, I look for words.

My favorite scene in Interstellar is when the McConaughey character falls into what is a black hole, but instead he finds himself on the other side of the cosmic window, right outside where his daughter is. He just does not seem to be able to reach out or communicate.

There is this concept of worm holes. You can travel vast seemingly untravelable distances through worm holes. They are warps in space and time.

For me coming to America has been McConaughey going into deep space. You think you are doing it for people on earth, people you care most about.

For me it is about the dollar a day people. I feel like if I do well enough as a tech entrepreneur - a SuperEntrepreneur - I will be able to reach out to the dollar a day people in some of the most effective ways possible so as to have a positive impact on their situation, to help them spiral up into higher income brackets. That there is a worm hole. And it is at the cutting edges of innovation.

From the entrepreneur angle, years have been lost to trucking (I packed a decade and a half worth of vacations into two plus years), years have been lost to politics (I was born where I was born, what can I do, what can I say, and if I have a gift, which I think I do, it is that both sides of my family were political), years have been lost to American immigration (the revenge would be to effect an IPO for every such lost year), but I will make up for it all. Software is the center of it all, but I have already made some early moves in biotech, nanotech and clean energy.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Constantly Voting People

English: Ballot Box showing preferential voting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently Twitter bought a company in India whose key insight is the missed call phenomenon. I guess in India you buy a phone. And there is no monthly fee. And if you only receive phone calls, you don't owe the phone company anything. I still think the phone companies make a ton of money in the process because Indians are a talkative bunch. Indian take the whole democracy thing a little too seriously.

So this company mastered the art of customer service through missed calls. And it had an impressive exit.

This reminds me of the power of SMS. We are squarely in the era of smartphones at least in the rich countries and very fast catching up in the poor countries. But SMS is still the killer application. The most popular apps on the smartphone revolve around SMS. And I believe there is a message there.

Seeking out numerous voting opportunities for people would be an idea. Let people be constantly voting. SMS based daily voting, voting multiple times a day. On all sorts of issues.