Of innovation and socialism

 The renowned columnist of New York times, Thomas Friedman, wrote in an article last week how the US is losing its mojo, a country bred on innovation and immigration has come to a standstill owing to disagreements on redistribution of what they have.

And I totally agree with him. That’s the case with most of the countries lost in the game of redistribution than creation. Take the case of our country, before we get to some level of prosperity, there is clamor for inclusive development, or there are more programs meant to redistribute.

While a country is in the stage of creation, or a country thrives on a culture of creation, will never have issues of redistribution as the creation in itself ensures it. There is never this feeling, will we grow more, will we get a share of it. Only when there are doubts of growth, there will be an anxiety of redistribution.

And this applies to organisations as well.

Happiness - really?

“What we feel inside us about what’s happening around us is our perception of the world” I was telling my daughter while setting her room in the dorm where she will stay for the next four years.    

“So, is there nothing like the good and the bad world?” my daughter questioned.

“Yeah, there is but how that is, is purely our take of how we feel about it, there will be situations when you will feel nothing is working for you even though the resources are not in short supply and you will feel inadequate, unhappy and there will situations when the resources will be in short supply but you will feel optimistic of the situation and hence happy”.  I responded.

“Hence, feeling adequate or not is our decision and is not driven by the world around us”. I added.

My daughter was confused but was willing to think. “So this entire emotional wellbeing is driven by us and not by people/situations around us?” she was really curious.

“ I wont be so black and white about it, the point I am making is, how we rationalize within ourselves is what will determine happiness for us. Ofcourse, if you have a lot of money and you have the freedom to spend it, you will feel happy, so the situation is going to make it easy but in the same situation, someone can chose to be unhappy by being pessimistic of the outcomes of spending it” I was trying to explain the thinking to her.

“ I need to take more responsibility of my emotional well being is what you are telling me?”

“Yes!!!” is what I told her.

Jet lag and the sleeping cycles

I am jet lagged, it’s been ages since I have gone through this disorder and it’s taking a heavy toll on me. So while going through the bouts of untimely sleeping, I am coming to this thinking that sleeping more than once within 24 hours for a long stretch can be very helpful to a human body.

Infact, I had read an article a year back that people in old times used to have a break during the sleep and used to resort to eating, sex and entertainment (sex definitely is one form) during that break. SO for example, people would sleep by the dusk and wake up midnight for about 3-4 hours and go back to sleep.

Wont it be nice if we get back into that mode again? Imagine sleeping around 8 in the evening, waking up at 12 in the night, spending 4-5 hours on various things listed above and going back to sleep at 4 and waking up at 8. I am sure it will keep all of us very healthy. Also, the time spent for personal things will be far more than what gets spent now. Other format can be, every 8 hours of working/doing things will lead to 4 hours of sleeping, the timing can be left to one’s discretion. It will really get into flexi living in a real sense.

I think this will boost productivity to a great extent – 8 hours of work and 8 hours of personal time – split between group (family, friends etc) and solo (reading, listening to music) activities.