Blogs

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Books and Stuff Podcast series - Bala dares to read a sci-fi book on his own and talk about it to Krishna. The tables have turned and Krishna watches the fun and asks Bala to summarize the book. What if a giant spaceship was sent to the earth with advanced technology? How will humanity respond to that? Will be treated as a purely scientific venture or a military mission to protect the sovereignty of the earth? “Rendezvous with Rama” deals with the theme of uniting under an external threat. Explore the vast and massive world that the Ramans had built to be sent out to the nook and corners of the universe.

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

Learn TRIZ through Movies - 1

in Teaching

2019-06-17

The art of framing a problem in the form of a contradiction (or a conflict of interest) is the core of the methodology of ARIZ (from the toolkit of TRIZ). Often times, the people whom I work with (be it students or employees) have a problem with understanding the concept. This series of posts is meant to clarify this for them. I have decided to use specific movie scenes for the purpose. I draw this idea heavily from a friend of mine (https://trizindia.org/2009/09/triz-in-films-ideas-for-fooling-filmi-ghost/). Today, we are going to use a scene from the movie “The Matrix”.

Books and Stuff Podcast - Episode 6 - How to be aware of the world around you

in Learning

2019-01-30

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Books and Stuff Podcast series - Are you sure you know the world around you? Let’s have a quiz, shall we? Given the current population growth rate of the world (1-2% per year) and given that today, we have about 2 billion children, what will be the number of children present in 2100? 4 billion, 6 billion or 8 billion.

What kind of biases plague us? What should be do to watch out for those? How can we aware of what is going on in the world? What are the worldly facts that we have got wrong? Do smarter people on the planet get all these facts correctly?

Take the test here first - http://forms.gapminder.org/s3/test-2018

Also, check this site out for https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness/

Uh… oh! A ton of unanswered questions. Listen to Krishna as he talks about the book “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

Books and Stuff Podcast - Episode 5 - How to increase your Financial IQ

in Learning

2018-12-05

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Books and Stuff Podcast series - For a change, it was Bala who discussed about the book that he read.

How can one be intelligent about money? How does currency differ from money? For once, Bala read a book on one of his pet subjects - investing. Krishna took it as an opportunity to kick back and grill Bala about “How to increase your financial IQ” - Income sources, protecting your money, budgeting, leveraging and using financial information seem to be the best points out of the book. Listen till the end for a bonus feature!

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

Design Thinking - A Primer (MOOC Open for Registration)

in Teaching

2018-11-22

It was August 2011, a few months before I quit the company, a gentleman tossed a question at me, “If I lose my job as a Java programmer to a computer which will write Java code by itself, then so will you. Without me, who will you teach?”

I had merely applied one of the trends of technology evolution and showed the participants of my workshop a demo that they would understand. Code that might write itself.

I had by no means hinted that I was going to fire him. But, I thought about this for quite some time.

Who will replace professors, trainers and consultants?

It is better that I replace myself rather than someone else, so I decided to record it all into a computer and deliver it as a course.

So, here goes. I am very glad to announce the launch of an online course on Design Thinking on an online platform called NPTEL - National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning. I am co-teaching this course with Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam from IIT, Madras. The course is available at https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc19%5Fmg23/. The course is now open for registration and we will start in Feb 2019. The wonderful folks at IISER, Pune, hard working people at NPTEL, my creative teaching assistant, Siddharth Maturi and his buddies - Nithin, Sam and Suprativ helped us with making this course possible.

Books and stuff podcast - Episode 4 - How 'Thinking in Bets' can simplify decision making

in Learning

2018-10-09

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Books and Stuff Podcast series - Krishna narrates his own views and what he picked up from a book about a psychology professor who became a Poker champion.

Krishna shares his views on Dr. Annie Duke’s theories on decision making. Krishna personally struggled with making the simplest of decisions and this book resonates with his growth to a person who now thinks in bets. Listen to the podcast to know about this.

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

Books and Stuff Podcast - Episode 3 - Half Lion

in Learning

2018-08-01

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Books and Stuff Podcast series - Krishna narrates his own views and what he picked up from a book on Ex-Prime Minister of India, P V Narasimha Rao.

What can one learn from a Prime Minister who masterfully pulled a country out of recession and socialism while keeping a slender majority at bay, while pursuing his own passion of life long learning? Listen to the podcast to know about this.

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

Books and Stuff Podcast - Episode 2 - Learning to Learn

in Learning

2018-07-18

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

What strategy did you use while studying or learning a course at school/college? Mine was simple: read, then read one more time, and then wake up in the morning and read again.

Magically, just after the exams, all the learnings vanished from my head. All these years, I wondered about why that happened. Let’s find out from our learned friend, Krishna.

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

How to Be Smarter About the Innovation Trends of the World? Deadline Tomorrow

in Teaching

2018-04-05

Can inventing be taught or is it in your genes? The perennial question that hounds a lot of us. G. Altshuller and his colleagues set out to prove that the art of inventing could be taught. So what’s up in the world of inventing and invention after they set out with this job? What are some of the hot trends in this field? Here is a great opportunity for you to find out.

Books and Stuff Podcast - Episode 1 - Deep Work How to Focus in a Distracted World

in Learning

2018-03-28

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Krishna likes to read books, but Bala doesn’t.

Bala likes to write, but Krishna doesn’t.

They both love to talk!

So, Bala and Krishna decided to talk about what Krishna reads.

And thus the idea of recording their chatter was born.

The two friends will discuss books they love.

This series of podcasts is for busy people. People who’d love to learn about a book without having to read one. And maybe the podcast will inspire them to get their hands on a book that interests them.

Feel free to leave your recommendations via social media or in the comments section below.

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!