On April 19, I become a father. 37 years separate Abhishek and me. We are products of two different worlds. As I thought about the world Abhishek will grow up in, I started thinking about the world I grew up in. And out of all this thinking emerged this letter…

Dear Abhishek,

Welcome to the World. As I hold you in my arms, I am thinking of the world around you that you will make your own in the years to come. It will be some time before you begin to understand the world around you. Hopefully, when that times, this letter will help you make some sense of where we once were and where we are going.

Atanu Dey says: “Life is a Random Draw.” In which case, you have much to be thankful for. You have been born in India, a country that has a great legacy, and even greater potential. While India slept through much of the second half of the previous century, the elephant is now showing signs of waking up. With a billion fellow countrymen, it had better! We are still a poor country, though you are fortunate enough to be among the country’s elite upper class. The top of the pyramid, as they say. And you better make use of this luck of the draw to make a difference in the world.

As I look at you, I cannot but think of the contrasts. Take your birth, for example. What I definitely know is that my father definitely did not do what I did to you – take a photo with a phone and have it up on the Internet for family and friends to see within a few hours of your birth. In fact, as soon as you were born, I was on my mobile phone, informing everyone even while your mother was in the operation theatre. By the time you reached the hospital nursery about 15 minutes later, all notifications were done – some via voice, and others by SMS. A few hours later, your photos were on the Net for all to see. A few days later, you were the subject of a blog post – that drew plenty of comments from all over the world. So much has changed between our births.

Through this letter, I want to share some of my thoughts on this changing world. Hopefully, by understanding where we came from, you will also be able to make this world better. Because there is still a lot to be done. From tackling poverty to searching for sources of alternative energy, the world needs even more innovation and entrepreneurship. There are so many elements in today’s world that are unrecognisable from the world in which I was born. For example, desktop computers, mobiles and the Internet didn’t exist when I was born – and already today, I cannot imagine a day in my life without any of them). I wonder what the equivalent innovations and advances will be in your life. Nanotech? Intelligent Machines? Quantum computing? Or something we cannot even imagine today? Whatever it is, you are going to grow up in amazingly interesting times. Because the only constant in this world is Change. And you are going to get plenty of it even as you grow up.

Tomorrow: Then and Now

Dear Abhishek,

As you look ahead, you will find that we are at a time of very rapid innovation. Perhaps, it has always been that way – and every generation feels the same! But I definitely don’t think that the pace was so rapid when I was growing up. We got news once or twice a day via the newspapers or the single (government-owned) TV and radio channel that we had. It took a lot of time to get a phone line. And when we did talk outside of the local area, it was incredibly expensive. Most long-distance communication ended up being by hand-written letters. When we took photos, we got them printed and put in an album. When we needed to look up information or do research, we went to the library. My first experience of a computer was when I was 15 years old – shortly after the personal version was launched.

Contrast this with the world today. News flows continuously on the Internet and dozens of TV channels. Alerts are delivered on mobiles. Phones are available on-demand, and talk is cheap as it is getting digitized and sent over the Internet. Most communication today is via email, IM or SMS. I don’t even remember writing a letter in my own handwriting for a long time! Photos are taken with digital cameras or the mobile phones and can be immediately available via online photo albums. A lot of the world’s information is now just a few clicks away and accessible via search engines. The computer will be part of your life from very early on – as you will probably watch videos and listen to music on it. And this is all happening today!

Now, extrapolate to the future. You can already start thinking how life will be different. Every generation brings with it learnings from the past. Managing multiple media, relationships and transactions simultaneously will probably come completely naturally to you. Even so, I can barely imagine how life will be when you will be 20 in the year 2025. While some things – like the length of the day – will continue to always be the same, what you do in the day and how you do those things will probably be quite different. All said and done, you are a product of a different era. I hope your mother and I can recognise that.

What you – and every human – has is the ability to learn. I hope you will make good use of that ability. There is an incredible foundation that now exists for you to build upon. We have the world’s information accessible for you to study – perhaps, there is too much of it. What’s more, you have the daily production of content by millions of people in the form of blogs on virtually every topic in the world. You have devices and networks capable of providing you access to all of that – instantaneously.

It is a fascinating world you’ve been born in. It is infinitely more complex than the world I was born in and grew up in. I am sure you will be able to cut through this maze of activity and create your own space. As you grow up, you will use your senses to build your own mental models of the world around you. To help you understand what’s happening, I thought I’d start by putting together some of the big ideas that we are seeing around us today. As you read these essays (and I hope to write one every few years), you will get a sense of where we are coming from and how an older generation views the future.

Tomorrow: My World

Dear Abhishek,

Technology and the Next New Things have always fascinated me (and I hope they will do the same to you). Not for me the beaten path. I like to think and ponder about the world that can be – and the world that we can help create. When I was young, I would spend hours sitting in the balcony of our flat in Mumbai listening to radio. TV was very limited – we just had one channel broadcasting a few hours a day! But radio – that was a window to a different world for me. My favourite programmes were BBC’s Discovery and Science in Action. Both, not surprisingly, explored new horizons. As I closed my eyes listening to what they talked, I also would imagine the future.

Every few months, there would be a different passion. When I was very young, I would accompany my father to the various construction sites – he was a civil engineer and designed skyscrapers. Then, bridges fascinated me. There was something majestic about the linking of two different worlds, I guess! My father would explain me about the different types of bridges through pictures in books – and there was a time when looking at a bridge, I could tell what type it was. Then, for some time, it was space travel. I remember sitting up late and listening to the live coverage on BBC and VOA (Voice of America) of the space shuttle take-offs and landings. That was amazing to me. I even wrote a long essay once on how I saw space as the final frontier and how its conquest was the next big untapped opportunity.

When I was 14, there were two interesting events that took place. The first was a tour of Europe. The second was Nehru Science Centre. The trip to Europe was my first outside India. We went as part of an SOTC tour. We visited almost all the Western European countries during a 3-week tour. I was fascinated by the history and the progress. One would read about “the West” but this was a first-hand experience. India, by comparison, was quite poor and backward. When I look back, perhaps it was that visit which instilled in me a desire to do things which will make a difference for India.

Nehru Science Centre was an interactive scientific extravaganza. There were various exhibits there and one could learn scientific principles by actually doing a few actions. I went there multiple times. Later, with three of my fellow-students, we participated in the Inter-collegiate science quiz contest organised there. 120+ schools participated – and we won! The Nehru Science Centre is an abiding memory from childhood. I pass it every day on my way home from work. A couple decades ago, it was another key component in helping build my scientific temper.

Tomorrow: Parents, Teachers and Friends

Dear Abhishek,

As a child, it is very important for you to have a sense of curiosity about the world around you. Only through your questions will you be able to build the models that will help you understand and interpret what is happening. There were three sets of people who helped me a lot as I was growing up – my parents, my teachers, and my friends.

My parents fueled my learning. Even as a child, I remember going out every Sunday and buying either the latest Amar Chitra Katha comic or some other book. As I grew a little older, it was the magazines we used to get at home. We were not very well off financially – I can remember sitting with my parents every evening and writing out the day’s expenses in a diary. My mother would walk with me so we could save a few paise in the bus fare. But there was no compromise in the quest for knowledge. I grow up in a world of books – and they encouraged every bit of that interest.

My teachers at school reinforced this love. I was fortunate enough to have some wonderful teachers who encouraged my interest in maths and sciences. We had an excellent library where I would spend most of my lunch breaks. A lot of the books I’d read dealt with invention and engineering. I just had to know everything! I would then make my own notes – sometimes copying entire articles so I could keep reading them. (I guess it is no surprise then that I blog so much!)

Two of my friends stood out in particular – we would challenge each other in this quest for knowledge! Perhaps, it was the library which bonded us together. But that was just the physical environment. As I look back, Anand and Narendra were for me two friends I could always turn to for anything. That we were part of the same team when we won the Nehru Science Centre quiz contest was an icing on the cake. The friendship which began in school has lasted through the years – even though distance separates us now. Anand is in the US East Coast, Narendra on the US West Coast, and I am in India. But the bonds of friendship that began nearly 25 years ago still run deep.

You cannot select your parents. Your parents select your school. The school selects the teacher. But you – and only you – select your friends. As you grow up, you will spend more time in school amidst your teachers and friends. As in everything, a little luck is necessary to get the right teachers and make the right friends. I was more than a little lucky! I hope you will be, too.

I hope this quest for the new and unknown is something which passes on to you. The world is a fascinating place, and there is much to be discovered and done. Whatever you decide and do, I hope you will get off the beaten path and tread on the road less travelled.

Tomorrow: Emerging Technologies

Dear Abhishek,

Technologies – old and new – will be as much part of your life as the air you breathe. So, I thought a good starting point to think about the future and put it in perspective would be to look at it from the eyes of one of the most respected technology publications, MIT’s Technology Review. For the past few years, it has been publishing a list of 10 emerging technologies. While some of these sound gobbledygook even to me, you will get an idea of the world that is being created.

Here is the 2005 list: Airborne Networks, Quantum Wires, Silicon Photonics, Metabolomics, Magnetic-Resonance Force Microscopy, Universal Memory, Bacterial Factories
Environmatics, Cell-Phone Viruses and Biomechatronics.

Last year, Technology Review had this list: Universal Translation, Synthetic Biology, Nanowires, Bayesian Machine Learning, T-Rays, Distributed Storage, RNA Interference, Power Grid Control, Microfluidic Optical Fibers and Personal Genomics.

Go back a year and you find this list: Wireless Sensor Networks, Injectable Tissue Engineering, Nano Solar Cells, Mechatronics, Grid Computing, Molecular Imaging, Nanoimprint Lithography, Software Assurance, Glycomics and Quantum Cryptography.

In 2001, this was the list: Brain-Machine Interface, Flexible Transistors, Data Mining, Digital Rights Management, Biometrics, Natural Language Processing, Microphotonics, Untangling Code, Robot Design and Microfluidics.

As you can see, there is plenty to think about! A lot of innovation is happening across multiple areas. For good measure, here is a list from CNN of the top 10 innovations (from a list of 25) of the past quarter century: Internet, Cell phone, Personal computers, Fiber optics, E-mail, Commercialized GPS, Portable computers, Memory storage discs, Consumer level digital camera and Radio frequency ID tags. How many of these would we have imagined in 1980?

As you ponder the impact of all these existing and emerging technologies, it will be good to keep in mind these words from The Wall Street Journal published a couple years ago:

Technology companies are often described as "inventing the future." Maybe they do. But they aren't very good at predicting it. That's how it is with the future: You never quite see it coming.

Let's not discount out of hand the idea that something unforeseen might appear on the scene to change things. Just don't expect to recognize it for what it is right away.

People in the technology world are forever searching for the "killer app" -- the must-have sure thing that the whole world will want to buy. Invariably, though, they never find the killer app; it finds them. You wake up one day and realize that you can't remember how you ever got along without, say, search engines.

It's a problem for technology companies. Most of the really transforming technologies bubble up in unexpected ways. More often than not, they require some sort of existing infrastructure, which they gently nudge in the direction of additional usefulness. The Internet, for instance, would never have happened without a vast and efficient telephone network, not to mention tens of millions of powerful PCs.

And these technologies are almost never envisioned in advance, but instead are appreciated after the fact, like the laser printer. Name your favorite technology. I'll bet it wasn't introduced with a big product launch. The typical pattern is that by doing something useful, simple and slightly new, it attracted customers and programmers who then began investing it with ever-more uses, many of them utterly unforeseen.

Dear Abhishek,

I have compiled my own list of 10 Big Ideas for you. Think of this as my 2005 list. Hopefully, I can keep preparing a list every few years – with my views possibly mirroring not just my evolving thinking but also the changing world.

1. Teleputers, Ubiquitous Networks and Utility Computing

It was only recently that I came to realise the full power and potential of the mobile phone. Even though I had been reading (and blogging) about it for some time, I still used an ancient (3-year-old) cellphone. It was only when I switched to using some of the newer mobile phones (Nokia 6600 and 6630) with GPRS connectivity that I began to better understand what the mobile phone is capable of. It has moved way beyond voice communications and text messaging. When you were born, I took your photo with the Nokia 6630, emailed it to Flickr and within minutes, it was there for anyone to see.

Mobile phones have their limitations – small screen, difficult (for me) data entry on the small keypad, and (still) slow network connectivity. The first two I don’t see changing, though voice is likely to become a mechanism to navigate the phone features. As you grow up, network connectivity will keep improving by leaps and bounds.

In the midst of this, do not ignore the computer. In countries like India, I think it will be the thin clients with their big screens and keyboards which will complement the mobile phone and get past the latter’s limitations. George Gilder’s teleputer will thus not be one physical device but two – the mobile and the computer coming together to make a single logical device.

Combine this with the presence of data networks everywhere – both wired and wireless. Even though today, it is well nigh impossible for me to get more than 40-50 Kbps Internet connectivity at home via the cable connection, even before you learn to talk, this will change. Affordable high-speed broadband will be available over both cable and DSL lines. And then there are the 3G and WiMax networks. By the time you start kindergarten, we will have an envelope of ubiquitous broadband connectivity. That is the world you will grow up in.

What all of this means is that you will have teleputer-like access devices always connected to networks and therefore to servers which will store the content and software you need. The teleputers you use will be two-way devices – giving you the capability to record everything in your life and store it (though for now, I cannot imagine what you will do with it). Combined with sensors and RFID chips, it will make possible what Ramesh Jain has called as the EventWeb – very different from the DocumentWeb that we see around us. It is a world where experience will be the centerpiece of what you see and do.

All the technology work of the past quarter century or so is now coming together to make an amazing technology platform for you. This mix of teleputers, ubiquitous networks, service-based utility computing will create a universe around you which is so different that it is hard for me to dream about. And all of this will happen just in the next five or so years.

Tomorrow: 10 Big Ideas (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

2. All the World’s Information At Your Fingertips

We are finally getting to a vision articulate by Bill Gates many years ago – information at your fingertips. When I was growing up, the school and college libraries were huge repositories of information Every so often, if I wanted to know and explore more, I would go to the British Council Library. I found the IIT library staggeringly large – extending to multiple floors. Twenty years later, we are on the threshold of having most of the world’s digital information searchable and accessible from a computer connected to the Internet. Google has played a large part in making this massive digital library possible with its search engine. Even though most of it is still text-based, technologies to search multimedia content are now becoming available.

You may find it a little funny that for a long time it was easier to search the world wide web of information than it was to search our own hard disks! Sometimes, that which is closest to us can be the furthest from us. (This is a deep statement – having repercussions beyond just technology!) Of course, in your world, you will probably not even know the difference between local and remote storage. (Besides, unlike us, you will never run out of disk space.)

So, the question that arises is: what will you do with access to all the world’s information – past and present – no more than a few clicks (or voice commands) away? More information does not necessarily mean more knowledge or wisdom. You will need to intelligently chose your sources which provide you the necessary insights. Use this freedom to access the world’s information judiciously. Sometimes, less is more.

3. It is a Flat World

Let us shift gears for a moment – away from technology. Tom Friedman wrote a wonderful book called “The World Is Flat,” which he describes as a brief history of the 21st century. What he means is that various technological development and political events have come together to create opportunities for individuals and countries which had been hitherto left behind. In the words of Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, this has “created a platform where intellectual work, intellectual capital, could be delivered from anywhere. It could be disaggregated, delivered, distributed, produced and put back together again -- and this gave a whole new degree of freedom to the way we do work, especially work of an intellectual nature.” You will grow up in a world where the playing field has been levelled, a Flat World. And my generation is just about coming to terms with this new reality – and the world of opportunities that it opens up for us.

Tomorrow: 10 Big Ideas (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

4. The Rise of India and China

Building on Tom Friedman’s flat world theme, the next pointer I want you to keep in mind is the rise of India and China. During the 1990s, China became the workshop for the world. Today, “Made in China” permeates a huge array of products sold globally. The past decade has seen the rise of India as a back-office to the world. Even though this services revolution has impacted only a small number in India, what it has done is given the country a new confidence by placing it squarely in the middle of many global value chains.

With successive governments who kept the liberalisation of the Indian economy happening in fits and starts, India has now become a happening business destination. CEOs of global companies are now visiting India to explore opportunities here. Investments are coming in across the board. There is a still a lot of work to do on all fronts from infrastructure to education – but the process has started and cannot now be reversed.

In school, I remember having a choice in the ninth standard of choosing between Marathi and French as the third language (after English and Hindi). I chose Marathi – even though I knew it would be, as my friends called it, “less-scoring.” Opting for Marathi (and not opting for French) was in my mind a decision to focus on my country – after all, I expected to live in Maharashtra state. Also, the hot country that time was not France, but America. And English took care of that. My one recommendation for you will be to learn Chinese as you grow up. China and India will be the new power centres and engines. You cannot ignore China as a market and as an opportunity for whatever you do. It will be good for you to learn the language early in your life.

In your lifetime, these two countries – along with other emerging markets like Brazil and Russia – are where the opportunities will be. These countries have little legacy – and a great desire to catch up for the lost years. Both India and China were great civilizations once upon a time. For different reasons, they suffered decline through the centuries – China looked inward and shut itself out from the outside world, while India was colonised. Now, both are using their strengths to power ahead and take their people forward. You have to be a part of this onward march. These billions of the world need to be given the same opportunity that you have, with technology and innovation being an integral part of the development process.

It would be good to keep these words from the Economist (Mar 3, 2005) in mind:

The more interesting and important question is whether India can compete with—or at least emulate—China in labour-intensive manufacturing for export. There is no other way that Indian economic growth can be raised consistently to match that achieved in China in the past two decades…India needs to raise its growth rate not as part of some artificial race with China, but for its own sake. Because of its population profile, not to do so would bring a big rise in unemployment, with all the misery that implies. The obstacles are certainly daunting, and include some political reform.

How the two countries cope with these and other social tensions will in part determine whether they can maintain or (for India) raise their present high rates of growth. China does not have the safety valve of regular competitive elections, but nor are there signs of an imminent explosion. India's political structure has shown itself well able to absorb all manner of shocks, but not, as yet, to achieve sustained radical growth-enhancing reform. Many would agree with Lord Desai's conclusion: “China will again become a viable Great Power; India may become just a Great Democracy.”

Tomorrow: 10 Big Ideas (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

5. Fragmentation of Media

The big (almost untold) story of the recent years has been the fragmentation of media. I was telling a friend recently about my own dramatic change in reading habits. Most of my reading comes not from the handful of papers and TV channels but from a collection of 300+ bloggers and websites, including a few from mainstream media. (In fact, my own blog completed three years recently.)

Jeff Jarvis captured the essence of what is happening: “The audience is moving to lots of new places now that they have the choice, now that they have control. The single, shared national experience we keep sighing about existed for only a few decades as we lived with three networks and fewer and fewer newspapers. The natural state of media is fragmentation: consumers gain choice, media loses control, citizens gain control. Fragmentation is good…It used to be, we waited for the news -- when the paper was plopped on our doorstep, when the show came on the TV. Now the news waits for us -- we get what we want when and where we want it…More news is good. Choice is good. Citizens controlling their media is good. Fragmentation is good.”

Television too is changing – Internet TV (or IP-TV) is becoming a reality. More importantly, technology is putting power in the hands of individuals. The cameraphone that I have can record an hour of video! There are websites emerging that allow me to post captured videos online for others to see. In a sense, I can also start my own TV channel – serving a readership of friends and family.

Chris Anderson calls it the “long tail.” Whatever it is, what is very clear that the choices you will have are growing exponentially.

6. The Real World Around Us

One thing I never want you to forget is that you have been a dealt a great hand by the luck of the draw. But for every one person like you, there are many others who still have little or no access to the basics of life – food, water, shelter, energy, education and healthcare. It is a world you cannot turn away from. Poverty continues to be a bane in our country. I hope we in India take positive steps to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty in the coming years.

In this real world around us, there are many challenges. Most of urban India today suffers from a few hours of power cuts every day. Water is getting increasingly scarce. Oil is becoming more expensive. As India develops, our energy needs are rising. We need alternative sources of energy. I don’t know where they will come from. Maybe we will find more oil, maybe we will make solar power more cost-effective. Or perhaps, turn to wind or nuclear energy or biofuels. The energy conundrum will be the key to how rapidly we progress.

Tomorrow: 10 Big Ideas (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

7. Rethinking Education

As I watch you grow, I think about how you will learn. There is more information in the world accessible to you than ever before. The mental models that you need to build are going to be much more complex than I ever had to worry about. And yet, the way we educate our children has barely changed in the past generation. That is what I worry about.

Education is perhaps the single most important factor that “makes” a person. We are still trying to teach children various things in our schools. We should be teaching them to learn more than anything else. But the tools we have on hand have barely evolved. Our teachers and educators have not yet understood the world that has changed so much due to developments in both computing and connectivity in the past two decades.

There is undoubtedly a need to rethink education. I don’t know what the right answer is. But for now, I will leave you to ponder these thoughts by Atanu Dey: “The present educational system evolved in simpler times when technologies were comparatively rudimentary. All you had were books, blackboards, and hard-copy libraries as teaching and learning tools, and live teachers giving real-time instructions. Now we have (the possibility of) broadband access to the world wide web, electronic libraries, distance education, radio, TV, CDs, DVDs. Things that were not written about or heard about just a generation ago. The tools and technological capabilities have evolved astonishingly. Therefore the educational process cannot but be subject to radical change as well.”

The last three Big Ideas are quick-takes. These are still quite new, but I want to mention them here so you are at least aware of them. We have future letters to discuss them in greater detail!

8. Biotech and Nanotech

Many a person has said that the future belongs to the three techs – infotech, biotech and nanotech. Much of what I have discussed so far has been in the context of infotech – not because it is more important than the others, but because that’s the area I understand best. In your life, however, the impact of biotech and nanotech will be equally large. So, make sure you keep track of developments in both these areas. Whether it is in the use of biology through genetics to find cures for some of the diseases that continue to afflict us or the creation of quantum computers, all I can say is that you will need to track these areas closely because there will be cross-pollination of ideas across these tech segments.

9. Personal Fabrication

I have just started reading a book by Neil Gershenfeld ‘s book “Fab,” which discusses the coming era of personal fabricators, giving us the capability to make virtually anything – right on our desktop. The Economist (Mar 23, 2005) wrote about Gershenfeld’s “Fab Lab” recently: “Dr Gershenfeld believes the world is poised for a personal-fabrication revolution. Fab lab will, he hopes, be part of it. Just as computing power moved from million-dollar mainframes to hundred-dollar PCs, industrial-scale machinery is, in his opinion, beginning a transition to the desktop. While personal fabricators will not replace mass production, he believes that within the next few years they will allow individuals and small businesses to customise products to their needs.” Am just wondering if, instead of getting you Lego blocks, I should get you a Fab Lab on your next birthday!

10. Intelligent Machines

As I watch you grow, I am fascinated by how you learn and think. At the heart of this is the brain. So, how does your brain work? That is what I am trying to figure out as I read Jeff Hawkins’ “On Intelligence.” The book describes Hawkins’ theory that the brain is not a computer, but a pattern-matching prediction system. The brain is intelligent because, according to Hawkins, “it lets you imagine the future.” So, could that help us build intelligent machines in the future? Ponder this from Business 2.0: “Hawkins believes such intelligent machines are at the same stage the programmable computer was at in 1950. He ventures a prediction of his own: ‘We can build these things faster than humans, with a deeper sense of thought, and can build them with special senses.’ Their sensory input won't need to be limited to the five human senses. They could gather data from infrared, radar, magnetic, microscopic, and telescopic sources, to name a few. And their sensors need not be attached to a body. They could be spread out across vast geographies.”

So, these are my 10 Big Ideas for 2005. Next week, I’ll give you some tips for life.

Dear Abhishek,

Even though the world you will grow up in will be quite different from the one I grew up (separated as we are by 37 years), there are some things which are eternal and will be as applicable to your life as they were to mine. These are learnings from my life so far, which would be useful for you as you grow up.

Make No Little Plans

This quote (via Atanu) by Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect, sums up what I think should be your philosophy for life. “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big."

When you are ready to make your mark in the world, keep these words in mind. Too often, we are happy with the mundane, the ordinary. All around, we see mediocrity. People are happy being good. Good is the enemy of Great. We get into a groove, a comfort zone, and stay there. Don’t. We live only once. Dream big. We are where we are today only because a few in our past dared to think different and envision a world that could be.

Think like an entrepreneur. Take risks in life. It does not matter if you fail. Success is always built on failure. I have failed many more times in my life than I have succeeded. So did my father. But that did not us stop us from thinking big. We learn more form failure than success. What you have to build is the capability to realise these dreams. Without a dream, there is nothing to look forward to. The goals you set for yourself must have an element of impossibility in them – only then will you stretch yourself and in doing so, discover attributes in yourself that you did not know existed.

I remember the time in the summer of 1986 that I decided to go on Himankan, an annual IIT trek in the Himalayas. I was one of the more physically unfit people you could find then! I just decided to do it because I thought I could not. It was a trek where, once you started, there really was no turning back. The first couple days were some of the most difficult I had ever lived. Every step that I would take was a challenge. We would walk through beautiful terrain and I would barely notice, wondering instead when we’d reach the next camp. Some time during those first days, the mindset shifted. I had done the first two days – so I could do the next ten also. I relaxed, and became more at ease with the world around me. I became confident that I would complete the trek. And I did – with increasing ease.

Life will constantly through up choices for you. Take the paths that you think are more difficult.

Tomorrow: Advice for Life (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

Learn to Learn

To make big plans, you will need the capacity to learn to learn. Let me explain. We are learning a lot when we are growing, and in school and college. But sometime later, as we start our work life, for many, this learning stops. Time freezes around us. Today becomes like yesterday, and yesterday was just like the day before. We lose the will, yearning and capability to learn. We become content to go through the rest of our lives as if on auto-pilot. We attribute it to the needs of family, our children, or whatever. In doing so, we lose the ability to learn. That becomes a very sad day. Unfortunately, few ever realise this – until it is very late.

The ability to “learn to learn” is perhaps the most important that you should possess. Behind these simple phrase is a much deeper inner discipline that you need to develop. It is something that you will probably have to develop on your own. Our education system may not necessarily impart that to you! In fact, many times what the education system will be in dissonance with building out this “learn to learn” capability.

What do I mean when I say you need to “learn to learn?” Learning to learn means having a fundamental understanding of a latticework of concepts which will allow you to build and refine your mental models of the world around. It means having an openness which does not hesitate to question (or be questioned) on what one knows. It means looking around and thinking about what is happening, and placing the event in perspective. To build this rich model, you will need to read widely and think deeply. Keep these words from Charlie Munger in mind:

I've long believed that a certain system – which almost any person can learn – works way better than the systems that most people use. What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head. And you hang your actual experience and your vicarious experience (that you get from reading and so forth) on this latticework of powerful models. And with that system, things gradually get to fit together in a way that enhances cognition.

And you need the models – not just from one or two disciplines, but from all the important disciplines. You need the best 100 or so models from microeconomics, physiology, psychology particularly, elementary mathematics, hard science and engineering [and so on].

You don't have to be a huge expert in any of those worlds. All you've got to do is to take the really big ideas and learn them early and well.

When you are young, you will have few cares in the world. And that is the best time to learn to learn. In my childhood, one such companion for me was the BBC World Service. I would spend hours everyday listening to their various programmes on radio. Close my eyes, and let the imagination run free. Choose as companions some of the world’s great writers and explore the world that we live in and how we got here with them. Learning about our past along multiple dimensions will give you a perspective to build the world of tomorrow. Done right, this ability will stand you in good stead through your life.

Tomorrow: Advice for Life (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

Understand the Power of Passion

There are two attributes that I have found which can make a big difference – passion and discipline. Passion is about the energy that we bring to what we are doing. Discipline is the process we follow to getting things done. Let’s talk a little about both of these.

Think of passion as infectious enthusiasm. It is about the force that we bring in the work we do – and how we can positively impact those around us. I learnt the power of this during my first year at IIT. I was contesting for the hostel elections – standing for the post of Literary Secretary. My opponent was one of the most well-liked seniors. No one gave me a chance to win – I was after all a “freshie.” But having made the decision to contest, I was determined not to end up with the same result as when I had stood for School Captain a few years ago. (I had then lost by a narrow margin – after I forgot my speech.)

So, this time around, I decided to campaign hard. I was the underdog, so big deal. I had little to lose. I met with almost every single hostelite, explaining my plans for what I’d do if I were elected. I only had my passion working for me. It was a big change for me. I was until that point of me an introvert – content to live in my own small world. But having decided to fight, I knew that unless I changed, I stood no chance. It was one evening that one of my seniors in the hostel told me – “You know, Rajesh, what we really like about you is your infectious enthusiasm.” That is a statement I have not forgotten to this day.

As it turns out, I did win the elections – by a couple votes. That was the only election I had to fight in IIT – as I went on to become General Secretary (Cultural), one of the highest posts in the student government. When I look back, it was that election which turned the tide for me. It changed me – for the better. It also showed me the power of passion.

It was the same passion that I had going for me when I started IndiaWorld in 1994 and had to go out and source content from various publishers. I had to make them see a world built around the Internet that did not exist. I had to make them believe me. That is where Passion comes in. It is one of the greatest assets we can possess – especially when we are trying to persuade others.

Passion comes from an inner belief – you have to let your inner feelings reflect on the outside, and like a virus, infect others around you. Passion is one of the key dimensions of leadership – and you will have to demonstrate plenty of it as you “make no little plans.”

Tomorrow: Advice for Life (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

Inculcate Personal Discipline

It has taken me the better part of my life so far to realise the value of personal discipline. I always thought of discipline in the strict sense of the word – a kind of mix of rigour and regimen, which one needed to rebel against! A few months ago, a friend used the word “discipline” in describing my lifestyle. It was only then that I started thinking about it more.

The dictionary definition of discipline is a good place to start. This is from answers.com:

1. Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.
2. Controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training; self-control.
3. a. Control obtained by enforcing compliance or order.
b. A systematic method to obtain obedience: a military discipline.
c. A state of order based on submission to rules and authority: a teacher who demanded discipline in the classroom.
4. Punishment intended to correct or train.

Discipline, to me, is now about evolving a specific set of ways to do things, and following them closely. Think of it as six sigma for oneself! While there is a definite need for variety and change, there are many things that we do during a day which can benefit from discipline. For example, until your birth (which still continues since you are currently with your mummy’s parents till June-end!), I had the following regimen for the early mornings (except Sundays and when I am travelling):

5:00: wake-up (I set 2 alarms 5 minutes apart to make sure I wake up!)
5:30: Listen to the BBC News on Radio as I am sitting in the balcony and thinking/reading
6:30-7:45: Walk/Yoga
7:30-9:00: Update Blog, Bath (cold water), Breakfast, Read Newspapers, Leave for office, temple visit en route

Sunday mornings are spent writing the Tech Talk for the week, and evenings are spent reading blogs and creating blog posts for the week. (I take a nap for about 1.5 hours in the afternoon.) Reading blog posts at a stretch is helpful because it allows me to better capture trends. Also, by slotting tasks at specific times make me much more efficient.

(Of course, some of this discipline will go out of the window as your mother and I take care of you while you grow up in the coming months – and develop your own daily discipline!)

More seriously, I have found that I can be much more productive by following a discipline for some aspects of life. In fact, this discipline helps me think better. It also helps me get more things done.

Among other things that I do: carry the notebook (or a small pocket diary) wherever I go so I can make notes, keep two pens (so that if one stops working I have a backup), write down things that I need to do so I don’t have to clutter the brain trying to remember stuff, eat at fixed times (whenever possible), limit eating outside food, check weight every few days so that I don’t exceed the 65-kg limit that I have set for myself, make sure one is always punctual for meetings, and so on. You get the idea. The right kind of discipline is a great platform to build life on.

Tomorrow: Advice for Life (continued)

Dear Abhishek,

Remember these Forget-Me-Nots

Even as we’ve talked about a lot of the new technologies and the world of tomorrow, there are some old world values which you must never forget. Under no situation must you every compromise on Honesty and Integrity. It is so much easier to live life in a transparent manner and not have to remember the stories one has told others. Lies and half-truths have a way of coming back and hurting oneself to the worst of times. So, keep it simple. Whatever happens, tell the truth – upfront.

Respect for parents and elders is something else you must always remember. Your generation will have unprecedented freedom. But that doesn’t change the traditions and culture that we have. The “oldies” may belong to a different era but they do have some more wisdom and experience. You may not always agree with their decisions and actions. But you must understand and listen to their thinking.

Build some good friendships – and nurture them. I have been lucky to have made a few wonderful friends. There is a lot you can learn and share with good friends. It takes time and a great deal of commitment to sustain friendships that last a lifetime. Trust me, there is no better investment that you can make. Your family and your close friends will always be there for you – no questions asked. And you will need them through life’s ups and downs. Choose your friends carefully – and then stay with them for life.

Keep a diary. Make it your own secret world. I started writing a diary when I was 15 years. I wrote for a few years, stopped, and then re-started. A diary is good because it helps you talk to yourself. It gives you a little time to reflect about the things you are doing and the events that are happening. Writing helps you think – and act – better. (Some parts of your diary can be shared with others through your blog.)

Finally, take life in its stride. Life is no bed of roses and neither is it full of thorns. It is a good mix of both. Ups and downs are going to be part of your life. Stay cheerful. The good times don’t always last, and the bad times also will pass. It is this rich combination that makes life so much more exciting. The taste of success is sweeter if it comes after failure. And failure helps one learn and work that much harder. The optimism about life must always be there. There is always some good in everything that happens – though it may not be very apparent initially.

As you do make and work towards making living your life and making your dreams come true, also remember these words by William Penn: "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

[PS: The full series is available here.]