VISUAL TOOLS GALORE FROM DILIP MUKERJEA

Here is a quick snapshot of the numerous visual tools [in low-res display for obvious reasons] developed by Dilip Mukerjea as part of his continuing authoring & consulting work.

In my view, these visual tools are useful in helping business professionals to navigate the accelerating changes in today's fast-paced, rapidly-changing world, especially from the standpoint of anticipating opportunities, solving problems & making informed decisions.

More explicitly, they will help you to embrace the 'Law of Requisite Variety'.

Readers who are seriously interested to learn some of these visual tools should write to Dilip Mukerjea, at dilipmukerjea@gmail.com.

A WISE QUOTE BEFORE THE END OF THE WEEK

"... Failure is a necessary part of a flourishing innovative ecosystem. Not every idea is destined for greatness. A talented individual working on an idea with fatal flaws by definition isn't working on an idea with transformational potential. When great talent is stuck working on the wrong things, the ecosystem as a whole suffers. The failure of failure leads to stagnation..."

~ Scott Anthony, founder of 'Innosight', now living in Singapore;

[More information about the author, his consultancy work & his writings is available at this link. He also writes a weblog on innovation insights at Harvard Business.]

HOW VISIONARIES SEE THE NEXT BIG THING IN THEIR MINDS' EYE

"You always start with a fantasy... Part of the fantasy technique is to visualize something as perfect. Then with experiments you work back from the fantasy to reality, hacking away at the components... I could see what the Polaroid camera should be... It was just as real to me as if it were sitting in front of me before I had ever built one..."

~ attributed to Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera, as revealed in the new book, 'Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries From the Rest of Us', by author Erik Calonius, who also revealed the same thing about Steve Jobs, inventor of the MacIntosh computer:

"Yeah, that's exactly the way I saw the Macintosh... It's like when I walk into a room and I want to talk about a product that hasn't been invented yet. I can see the product as if it's sitting there right in the center of the table. It's like what I've got to do is materialize it and bring it to life - harvest it just like Dr. Land said..."

A WISE QUOTE FOR THE WEEK

"Want to change the world? Change caterpillars into butterflies? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do... That's a big goal, but one that's possible for all of us..."

~ Guy Kawasaki, author of 'Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions';

A WISE QUOTE BEFORE THE END OF THE WEEK

"... One way to be certain of continued enrichment [of the brain] is to maintain curiosity throughout a life-time. Always asking questions of yourself or others & in turn seeking out the answers provides continual challenge to nerve cells [in the brain]... "

~ Dr Marian Diamond, professor of Anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley & author of 'Enriching Heredity';

NEW TOY, STIMULATING EXPERIENCE, EXPANDED MIND

This is my new electronic toy, which I have recently acquired as a second-hand unit in Ho Chi Minh City. It was only three-months old when I bought it.

It's actually a 5-inch go-anywhere Android-based pocket tablet from DELL. It's called DELL Streak 5. It has practically everything a pro would need to stay abreast in today's world of accelerating change.

Naturally, it's also a 3G cell phone, with a wonderful array of novel & yet fascinating features to tickle as well as challenge the mind. [You can read more about it or obtain the technical specs from this link.]

In the last five years or so, I have changed four cell phones. In 2007, I traded my old Samsung - I can't remember the model - for a Nokia N93.

Two years later, I got myself a Windows-based Samsung OMNIA II 18000 Smart Phone.

Not too long ago, I got myself what was considered as the world's first Windows-based phone ~ the HTC HD2, with that capacitive touch technology — one can zoom in & out of emails, documents & pictures with a simple pinch of one's fingers, & browse through emails or web pages with the lightest touch. [You can read more about it or obtain more technical specs from this link.]

Unfortunately, after less than a month of usage, I had accidentally drop it. It's now kaput! Luckily, it was a second-hand unit.

The Nokia set now serves as a spare, while the Samsung set still carries my Singapore roaming number. I am having my new Vietnamese number on the DELL set.

Looking back at all my electronic toys, I must say that it has been a stimulating journey of playful exploration, coupled with intellectual rumination, so to speak.

Each time, with fond memories of course, I have had to start off with a new learning curve, as I struggled to learn & to teach myself the new technological intricacies of each novel gadjet.

Undoubtedly, novelty stimulates the mind. However, the stimulation arising from having to deal with so much technological advances in hand-held communication devices of today also invariably brings one through agitation mode.

Dr Ilya Prigogine called it "perturbation", or more explicitly, the "Theory of Dissipative Structures" at work, for which the Belgian scientist won a Nobel Prize in 1977 for his brilliant work.

To put it in layman perspectives, I reckon American Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841–1935), was absolutely right, when he said:

"The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size."

So, was German poet & philosopher Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805), too when he said:

"Im engen Kreis verengert sich der Sinn. Es wachst der Mensch mit seinen grossern Zwecken." [translated: "In a narrow circle the mind contracts. Man grows with his expanded needs.”]

My expanded mind is still reverberating from the incessant exposure of daily trials & errors with the Dell Streak 5.