Shantibhushan Naik

Blog

  • Undermining what makes things work

    Undermining what makes things work

    Computers used to improve our lives, automate seemingly mundane work, enable much done with less is omnipresent. As with anything commercially successful, software too has received careful scrutiny, tons of knowledge, plethora of suggestions on how to keep making software better. Probably many of us are aware, software industry is one of the most exciting, most confusing commercial domains of our age.

    My own experience attempting to do my startup has provoked me to the depths about thinking what could be right balance of software as technology forerunner for my company, against company as a managed organization to continue improving the technology. I ponder on questions like, should management be well-versed in technology, or should management be just good, plain old management? But then, how does management perceive managing technology different to any other case for management, say automobile industry? Do I favor a hands-on, roll up your sleeves approach (and attitude) from my management team? Or do I allow managers to carefully handle the veil between upper management aspects, to low-level technical, trench oriented projects?

    To me, the answer is very elusive, and not one that may have a definite answer best and safest weight loss pills. I’ll find out, but there is one small detail that I have some impressions about.

    Technology projects about improving the existing technology are not new. Almost every organization having an IT division has all of their technology projects about improving the existing ones. As it goes with everything else, most of these are assessed with one primary reason – the cost. Large technology changes, cost of maintenance, technology work owned, but essentially maintained by vendors, value proposition to any emerging business … in short, how much do we get over how much we give. That is an interesting aspect, borrowed over from commercial world of business. While there are reasons why such kind of monetary evaluation precedes technology value, the issue gets clouded when technology becomes almost secondary to any company’s growth preference, money comes first (and foremost).

    Amidst all this progress, I keep wondering about the value of existing technology.  To me the clear question is how do organizations perceive the existing systems value? How much of current technology can be written for future? By how much – 5 yrs, 10 yrs, 1 yr? Would we, as users, creators of the technology have the same unchanged need when we are in the future?

    Overall, how do you really evaluate technology improvements when one is unaware to the fact that it is current, existing technology which has led to this situation where you can think about improvements?

    I feel that most of us undermine working technology, over ideal one. Ideal one, if exists, will only come by when you stop looking any further. Working technology, however, is real, error-prone, touches you now. Improvements, not just in technology but anywhere, happen when we start asking the right questions to right problems. The other option is to keep yourself shrouded in veils, pretending there is a problem your teams are solving making few more along the way to improvements.

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  • Innovation to pioneer, innovation to disrupt

    Innovation to pioneer, innovation to disrupt

    Just to get a hang of how few of my acquaintances feel about innovation, and debate around potential to be disruptive, I decided to present a few takeaway points I gathered from the excellent book The Innovator’s Dilemma. The thoughts, ideas, historical facts laid out in that book are indeed brilliant, and I must say the ideas in the book are the primary reasons I could articulate some of my own internal thoughts.

    Most the points got through my friends easily. At some points I felt I had to explain using few examples. But in essence, many of my friends did show an appreciation of tendencies, signals that cause disruptive innovations to take seed. One of them also pointed me to a recent paperback Inc. article which did a take on debunking the myth on innovating.

    Ok, first off I believe the presentation went OK. While I still improve on that, I must say something triggered in the back of my mind during the last 50 minutes which I feel I need to answer for myself. I find that there is basic disconnect in what we term innovation is, and who are innovators.

    Let me say that first of all I acknowledge the fact that many ideas from The Innovator’s Dilemma are essentially the author’s opinion of what factors underpin an innovation to take seed and grow. The author’s ideas are indeed convincing, have a sound basis of data interpretation, and are in fact simple to fathom if you think about history of innovation seriously.

    What I takeaway in hindsight is that these ideas are not supposed to be taken as answers literally. It will be a fallacy to blindly follow all principles from the book verbatim with little or no serious effort into really absorbing the ideas. That is probably what the Inc article on debunking myths around innovation seems to do.

    Second, the whole buzz around innovation is not about getting rich quick, getting rich smart. In fact, I go as far as saying that getting materialistic gains is never the primary point of innovation! It’s more of a side-effect that follows, but is never inherent to notion of innovating. Innovation to an innovator is more personally engaged in that it results generally becoming acceptable to others than just the innovator alone.

    Most of the innovations are never about getting innovation to become successful. Instead I believe innovation is about personal sense of achievement, confirming (reinforcing) the innovator’s belief that whatever their dream they set out to achieve ultimately became a reality. In many ways, I tend to consider innovating as more along the lines of pioneering spirit. As Kim Woo-jung correctly quotes in his brilliant book Every street is paved with gold, the innovator does not work hard for a few coins, because he/she can make money anytime. The whole idea of innovation is never about justifying success as a means to an end. Instead innovation is all about innovator achieving his/her fullest potential in this short span of worldly existence here amongst us. To that comment, I do greatly respect entrepreneurs who give young aspiring entrepreneurs the invaluable gift of believing in your dreams.

    Third, innovation treated from a perspective of ‘known’ facts is like generally trying to fit round pegs in round holes. Again quoting Kim Woo-jung (and the same comment is aptly coined as an innovator’s dilemma) – when you try to do something better than other’s, then you will be only as successful as other’s could have been if they chose to follow you. What makes an innovator different is repeatedly attempting something that an innovator believes only an innovator can do. If an innovator cannot begin to see beyond what the environment offers, then the innovator is merely a smart businessman looking to get lucky. An innovator if determined can make it possible to fit a square peg in a round hole.

    Pioneers, businessmen are both essential for innovation. Some want to be rich, famous, while some seek meaning, a sense of higher purpose in their life. I believe innovators seek such purpose and a meaning. The rewards with each innovation attempt are of a value greater than innovation itself. I once quoted an excellent phrase I heard which says it takes courage to see the dreams which only you can see.

    It is my humble advice to fellow innovator’s, and aspiring entrepreneurs – Seek to evolve yourself beyond what you thought is possible for you now. Seek to answer, rather than looking for answers. Innovate and disruption will follow.

  • 9i9 is me

    9i9 is me

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  • I feel great on my birthday

    As I turn 34 today, I really do appreciate all of my family, best friends, near-n-dear ones who all have always been with me. In fact, I feel younger as I grow 34 today. Looking forward to lots of new experiences, tons of energy, and heaps of fun growing ahead 🙂

  • Entrepreneurs bandwagon spirit

    Entrepreneurs bandwagon spirit

    My latest entrepreneurial endeavors about creating new products has been rewarding. There is so much to learn, understand and explore to find an idea, worth all the effort and so much important to me. I personally experienced a constant surge of determination when trying to make products such as Docs9 and 5w1h. Under a healthy blanket of tension, there is something wonderful of having accomplished these. I have realized strongly that something, anything if it means important to you is always worth pursuing for.

    I learnt alot. Most important, I am learning about how to keep the main thing the main thing. I find it so easy to get lost in details when you are on top of creating a product. The good news is that all of this is do-able. Even at a small pace, even in tiny amounts the focus on main thing is important. The focus, as I call it, is the sole reason for all of your efforts. It could be a purpose, a reason, a burning desire, or simply put – an unconscious drive you feel, but cannot quite articulate. Whatever your definition, keeping your focus in sight immensely helps supporting your motivation and determination in your pursuit to achieve what you are set for.

    For example, I love technology. What more can be done with technology, is more interesting for me. My focus, as I believe now, is to make something out of technology, whatever that is. I set out to create my first product Docs9 – https://www.docs9.com/, and then the next one 5w1h – https://www.5w1h.co/ both with the same burning desire to make something useful out of technology. When I say ‘something’, I want to explain that it should be useful in some sense to others. The benefit that it would give to someone using it, or what someone can achieve by using it. In the world of technology, the benefits could be time-saving, entertainment, or financial.

    When I set out with Docs9, my whole focus was providing a simple, easy to use presentation platform. I wanted to have a platform that gives sharing a presentation the sole precedence. Nothing else. I resisted hard to provide (and inadvertently) repeat the temptation to provide editing, provide attachments and what other features I could simply cram into making another product that already exists in market. This hasn’t been easy, especially when introducing my product to someone. It usually enters into an implicit comparison with a similar product they already heard about. It becomes a sort of mental barrier for them to see through that frame of mind into my product and understand my motive behind the idea of collaboration through dialogue. Perhaps I could be exaggerating my bit, but I often get the impression that most of us think what we want isn’t really what we actually want. Most of what we want is a like watching through a stained glass and believing that what you see is true.

    On the positive side, there have been growing number of signups on Docs9, which is a great motivational boost for a young entrepreneur like myself, to believe that out there are users who see the side of collaboration. It feels great to be able to offer something of benefit to those, and keep persevering not just for sake of gratification but also for a sense of worth you believe you can do. This is my definition, not certainly what I want to borrow from what is generalized opinion of accomplishment. Put in other words, this is accomplishment as I see fit, and it makes my determination stronger. The (whole) point is that if you set to believe what you can achieve, then the best way is to find out is yourself. Right or wrong, success or failure comes after, not before you’ve tried what you really wanted to do.

    5w1h has been a different game altogether. I set out to do it not for any particular benefit at all. I just wanted to do it for myself. I just felt that I had to do it. I started with a simple one to one chat, then did this, then did that, then again did this, then again did that. At some point I was confused. At some point I felt to just leave it. But something was nagging, some dissatisfaction kept me pushing to do it, finish it, complete it. That is exactly what I did. One thing I have learnt while on Docs9 is to be able to trust your own self. Inspite of anything that would try to get in the way, I kept my focus on one simple thing – I want to do it. Whether it makes sense now (or ever), I believe that towards the end 5w1h has come up nicely together.

    I was happy to be able to get 5w1h out, satisfied of my work. Like an artist admires his art, I admire my work and feel happy about it. Same is the way I admire Docs9. I feel great about making Docs9, and judging by the steady signups, I believe that others feel the same way too.

    I jumped the entrepreneurship bandwagon with pure entrepreneurial spirit. I do not know where the journey will end, but I know where to start.

    No matter what, I will continue. No matter how, I will persevere. I think therefore I am.

  • 2013 was a great year

    I wish 2013 has been a great year for everyone. It was an important year for me after all.

    As a final accomplishment for this year, I just launched a fun chat service called hi5 on https://www.5w1h.co/.

    5w1h gives you a single place to chat with all of your friends on different networks, most of whom you can only talk when you sign in to that particular network, say Outlook or Google. 5w1h is fun service created to add a twist of fun, a dash of simplicity, and a mix of colors to your chats. It was designed to work with all popular social networks and makes it easily possible to chat with your contacts across your networks from a single place.

    Thanks to my wife Elena, my kids Amrita, Nicolas for putting up with alot of patience towards my long days, late nights working on this.

    I wish everyone a very happy new year 2014 with alot of energy, happiness, and luck!

  • Christmas 2013 performance at 聖母幼稚園 (Seibo youchien)

    Nicolas, Amrita, Elena performing at 聖母幼稚園 (Seibo youchien) Christmas 2013 gathering. Nicolas’s performance was very impressive, Amrita enjoyed being on-stage, and Elena was delighted to join her mother’s club live.

    Merry Christmas 2013 to all!

  • Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

    Software is an art. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Project SNOWFLAKE is an experiment to prove this through beautiful, minimalistic user interfaces. By suggesting alternate designs to some of most popular sites, this project wants to raise awareness on quality, beautiful, elegant human user interfaces.

    In many ways, this project is a bold attempt to refine our taste in software. Whenever I come across applications that mock a cockpit at best, I wonder if many of us really do appreciate good, quality software – especially the user interfaces? Quality on user interface can instill a sense of pleasantness, and many of us instinctively know that this year 2013 has been marked pronouncedly by responsive user interfaces.

    As part of SNOWFLAKE, I target some popular sites, some topics as a part of this independent experiment. Not surprisingly, meeting the basic requirements of any device, any browser support is no longer an issue. The time is perfect for fully responsive, and typographically adaptive user interfaces. Yet surprisingly, it is not a norm yet. It will be evident that fluid, beautiful, elegant user interfaces will prevail over geeky, complicated designs. Snowflake’s showcase demonstrates how elegant a user interface can be while retaining all of it’s usefulness. As is often the case, many beautiful user interfaces do exist. Some notable mentions will continue to get added in showcase, and I am delighted on this personal pursuit on beauty in human user interfaces, both spiritually and intellectually.

    Through SNOWFLAKE I strive for beauty conveyed through human software user interfaces, endeavoring to promoting human user interfaces towards a status equal to that of art or music.

  • Not busy

    These days I think alot about my startup. Whenever I meet out new people for lunch, or I talk to friends my thoughts seem to be gravitating towards – “What could I use this person for?”

    Somehow I have elected to follow my instinct exclusively. To some, this might sound the hard way. For some reason, it feels right. At times, I wonder if I could simply read an entrepreneurship book, and get some frame of mind to link my thoughts. What is important? What is priority? What is experience? I have kept pondering on these for quite a while.

    I must admit it is liberating. There is some thrill into thinking like an entrepreneur. Perhaps, a recent email from GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving aptly describes what I feel now –

    “One of the clearest lessons we’ve learned is that the one word to describe you best is ‘courageous.’ You go after what you really love, you chart your own course, and you create something (often from nothing) that usually makes the world a better place. Whether it’s a neighborhood pizza shop, an organization to help those in need, or a company poised to launch a new industry, you believe where others don’t. You have the guts to strike out on your own to make your dreams — however bold or humble — a reality. That’s courage, and it’s worth every ounce of support we can give.”

  • Template – HTML5, CSS3 ready Responsive Web Design Page

    I ended up creating a simple Template.

    After working yet again on my third website using responsive web design, I saw that I badly needed a template. A simple drop-in skeleton template that I could use as a kick-start, and focus on content instead of structure.

    There is a bevy of instructions, usage, gotchas when correctly implementing responsive web pages. Instead of reminding myself of any such lessons, I thought it’s best to start with a base, and over time keep adding important bits to it.

    It was tempting to create a template with _all_ of the best out there. But I chose to stick with the essential, most importantly stable, and practical template I could figure out. The project is on Github, and I look forward to improving Template with an aim to provide standard, clean, responsive websites.

    Happy responses!