Sunday, April 11, 2004
So I have decided that I should start updating my post too.. The trouble ofcourse is that you have to remember the big flashes of inspiration or profound clear level head thinking that you get during your day so that you can write it down ..
I will try to remember them..
A current minor obsession is to figure out why is the "west" so economically prosperous and not the rest of the world.. In that context ofcourse the industrial revolution , growth of capitalism in England etc come to mind ..Reading a book called the Birth of Plenty , which basically says that there are four different factors , the offering of property rights, capital markets, means of communication and the scientifc method.. I am also reading a book called Culture Matters which mentions some other interesting theories though , looks like there was a person called Max Webber who came out against Confucius's theories that they were essentially anti-capitalistic and so China would never prosper.. the point here being that somehow the culture of a community is responsible for its rise .. not so sure about that though .. , as I have also read that later they were some other historians who looking at China's amazing new economic revival claim it to be attributed to values from Confucius !! .. However though it may or may not be true , perceptions do matter I guess. As Naina Lal Kidwai mentioned while answering a question at the IBC at Harvard Business School which I attended that the perception of the fast speaking, mathematically inclined , hardworking , computer programmer from India has gone a long way in improving its image.. But wether a particular culture is more suited for success as compared to the other I am still not entirely sure.. People might still point out at Latin America, but look at Chile.. its the new super star in the Latin American economic landscape.
I think that this argument is somehow like the argument given by people who believe in star signs.. I have frequently seen that they say that they are exactly like their star sign .. What they do is that they read what attributes are associated with a star sign and then try to match what they are with that , not the other way around..
Also reading a book called the future of freedom by Zakaria.. , interesting stuff.. he insists that democracy and liberty are two orthogonal concepts and too much of democracy is not necessarily a good thing..
I have much more to say on this topics.. I will keep posting stuff..
Been to a jagjit singh show , my obvious musing for the day is that I guess Indians become more Indian when they come out of India , they somehow clamour for whatever India they can grab at !
Also met some interesting people on a walk through Boston , a person at MIT's famed media lab , a microbioligist etc..this is what is fascinating in Boston that I get to meet so many different kind of people working in different proffessions ..
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I will try to remember them..
A current minor obsession is to figure out why is the "west" so economically prosperous and not the rest of the world.. In that context ofcourse the industrial revolution , growth of capitalism in England etc come to mind ..Reading a book called the Birth of Plenty , which basically says that there are four different factors , the offering of property rights, capital markets, means of communication and the scientifc method.. I am also reading a book called Culture Matters which mentions some other interesting theories though , looks like there was a person called Max Webber who came out against Confucius's theories that they were essentially anti-capitalistic and so China would never prosper.. the point here being that somehow the culture of a community is responsible for its rise .. not so sure about that though .. , as I have also read that later they were some other historians who looking at China's amazing new economic revival claim it to be attributed to values from Confucius !! .. However though it may or may not be true , perceptions do matter I guess. As Naina Lal Kidwai mentioned while answering a question at the IBC at Harvard Business School which I attended that the perception of the fast speaking, mathematically inclined , hardworking , computer programmer from India has gone a long way in improving its image.. But wether a particular culture is more suited for success as compared to the other I am still not entirely sure.. People might still point out at Latin America, but look at Chile.. its the new super star in the Latin American economic landscape.
I think that this argument is somehow like the argument given by people who believe in star signs.. I have frequently seen that they say that they are exactly like their star sign .. What they do is that they read what attributes are associated with a star sign and then try to match what they are with that , not the other way around..
Also reading a book called the future of freedom by Zakaria.. , interesting stuff.. he insists that democracy and liberty are two orthogonal concepts and too much of democracy is not necessarily a good thing..
I have much more to say on this topics.. I will keep posting stuff..
Been to a jagjit singh show , my obvious musing for the day is that I guess Indians become more Indian when they come out of India , they somehow clamour for whatever India they can grab at !
Also met some interesting people on a walk through Boston , a person at MIT's famed media lab , a microbioligist etc..this is what is fascinating in Boston that I get to meet so many different kind of people working in different proffessions ..
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