BookMarks #47: The Time Machine

Title: The Time Machine

Author: HG Wells

Genre: Science Fiction

Setting: Late 19th Century Britain & way ahead in the future

Published: 1895

Summary

An inventor builds a Time Machine and travels into the future and gets a glimpse of what has become of the intelligent life on Earth.

BookMarks

We do not learn of any character names except Weena, who becomes the time traveler’s companion in the future. Even in the text, when a character addresses another by name, that part is left blank. Almost as if all names have been redacted from the text.

Had read the book at a much younger age, and did not get the many nuances the story has. It isn’t just a tale of an inventor building a Time Machine, finding things different from what he imagined, landing in trouble and managing to get back to his own time after a great adventure. It is also a tale of how even species can diverge if the differences between the haves and the have-nots keeps on rising. The increasing gap here leads to evolution of two radically different species, one of whom even feeds on the other. 

Is evolution circular? A question which crops up while reading the book. The human species hasn’t evolved into a super-human one rather it has effectively moved backwards. There are simple-minded, child-like fun-loving “eloi”, who sustain on fruits and are fascinated by a flame and seemingly have no care in the world. And then there are the savage “Morlocks” who eat the eloi, stay in the dark undergrounds and are scared of fire. Ability to live as a community, agriculture, domesticating animals, building industries and machines – all seem to have been lost alongwith the intellectual capacity to read and write and store knowledge which can be passed on from one generation to other. 

All this happens even while the Earth is still inhabitable. As the time traveler proceeds further into the future, there are changes in the solar system leading to climate changes, which drastically alter the life. This bit is quite understandable because life exists on Earth in its current form because of conditions which are just right. 

Through the time traveler, we also learn how not to depend just on our biases. Every new information he gets, he tries to formulate a theory based on his 19th century understanding. And thus ends up being wrong multiple times. Although he does keep evolving his thought process with passing time. It is quite fascinating to see how new information is processed by our biased brains. We try to immediately bucket new things with what we already know rather than wait for all information. 

The Time Traveler goes into the future and burns down a forest with fire that he has created in order to keep the morlocks at bay. A whole forest destroyed, large scale destruction of species, some species friended and “domesticated” as companions – isn’t that exactly what humans have done during our time on Earth? Go to a new place and drastically change its ecological balance. Since there aren’t many such places left in the present, our narrator has gone into the future and done the same in a matter of days!

The ending is written with an air of mystery, when there is actually none. If the Time Machine is still working, the narrator should not have to wait for his Time Travelling friend for three years to tell his story. The Time Traveler can choose the exact moment of his return.

Fun Fact – The term “time machine” was coined by HG Wells in this book. And it is now the universally accepted term for such a device! Time Machines and Time Travelers may not exist (from what we know now) but Wells certainly was a man ahead of his time!

Previously on BookMarks: Exponential Organizations

Also by HG Wells – The War of the Worlds 

BookMarks #46: Exponential Organizations

Title: Exponential Organizations

Author: Salim Ismail

Genre: Non-Fiction, Management, Strategy

Published: 2014

BookMarks

In this book, the author attempts to define what would enable an organization to keep growing. He provides the concept of an Exponential Organization. An Exponential Organization is defined as one whose impact (or output) is disproportionally large—at least 10x larger—compared to its peers because of the use of new organizational techniques that leverage accelerating technologies. 

For an organization to be considered exponential, it needs to have a Massive Transformative Purpose. The vision statement should be simple yet provide a large scope. The author has also provided 10 attributes which an Exponential Organization should have. These are acronymed as SCALE & IDEAS. 

• SCALE: Staff on Demand; Community & Crowd; Algorithms; Leveraged Assets; Engagement, 
• IDEAS: Interfaces; Dashboards; Experimentation; Autonomy; Social

He goes on to measure different global organizations and provide how they compare on these 10 attributes. Examples are from both tech & manufacturing industries including Google, Coca Cola, Uber, Amazon etc. And there are companies and ideas which failed to keep up like Kodak, Nokia.

According to the author, Big Data analytics plays a key role in the success of such organizations. The 5P benefits of big data being Productivity, Prevention, Participation, Personalization and Prediction.

Some of the key Qualities of Exponential Organizations have been identified as follows.

• They are not swayed by the HiPPO (“highest paid person’s opinion”). 
• Information accelerates everything. Everything is being turned into information—and is thus measurable and knowable.
• Everything is being disrupted, and disruptions can come from unexpected quarters.In a disruptive world, smaller is better.
• Rent, don’t own, assets. E.g. Uber & AirBnB. Marginal cost of supply is dropping exponentially for the first time ever.

Couple of interesting observations from the book.

• “Execution eats strategy for breakfast”
• “Biology has the unique trait of being software that can create its own Hardware”.

An interesting book giving real world examples on what an organization must to do survive and thrive in this increasingly VUCA world. 

Previously on BookMarks: 36 Stratagems

BookMarks #45: 36 Strategems

Title: 36 Strategems

Author: Unknown, Chinese oral tradition

Genre: Essay, Non-Fiction, Military Strategy

Published: Unknown, Has been passed on through oral history

BookMarks

Another Chinese treatise on military strategy. It is more of an essay than a book. The book is divided into 6 chapters. Each chapter has six proverbs and a couple of lines explaining the essence of the proverb to the audience. The chapters focus on different strategies which are as follows

1. Winning Stratagems
2. Enemy Dealing Stratagems
3. Attacking Stratagems
4. Chaos Stratagems
5. Proximate Stratagems
6. Desperate Stratagems

Brute force and firepower is never the optimum strategy. However, the strategies focus on use of deception, understanding of opposition and the conditions to reach to victory. The writer saves the best for the last and concludes of the 36, fleeing is the best strategy!

Military strategy and planning has provided lots of inspiration to modern business strategy formulation. This one keeps it simple and straightforward and that is usually the secret ingredient of most successful business strategies! Especially the last one - knowing when to retreat!

Link: Wikipidea - provides the entire text with history and explanation.

Previuosly on BookMarks - The Art of War

BookMarks #44: The Art of War

Title: The Art of War 

Author: Sun Tzu

Genre: Non-Fiction, Military Strategy

Published: 5th Century BC in Mandarin
English Translation By: Lionel Giles (1910)

BookMarks

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese treatise on military planning and warfare. It comprises of 13 different chapters - each dedicated to a distinct aspect of warfare. None of the chapters focus on the actual battle, but instead focus on planning, preparing, understanding the ground conditions, role of the leadership, adopting tactics to the ground conditions leading to calculating the chances of winning the war and gaining territory.

While the era of "conventional" warfare is gone, the book is still a gem for understanding tactics and building strategy. The book addresses themes like understanding the environment, the economics, the resources and their mobilization, opportunities and  how to cash in on them, when to engage in and to avoid direct confrontation, the need for flexibility, the tools to be used and finally the role of gathering intelligence about the opponents. No wonder, it is a much cited book for strategic planning and why so many leaders refer to it as their "inspirational" book. Also, the small text size helps a lot!

In short, the perfect beginners' guide to building strategy!

Link: Google Play Store App

Previously on BookMarks – The World is Flat

Road To Tokyo: Episode 4

On our Road to Tokyo, we crossed another important milestone – the 18th Asian Games. It did provide a glimpse of what can be expected at Tokyo. But two years is a long time and things can change quite dramatically. Here is a short review of the Indian performance at the Games in context of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Pre-Games Drama 

What is Indian sport without any drama in the build-up? So many athletes and even sports went to court regarding participation/selection in the Games. Shows how big a mess we are in still in the matters of sports administration! 

Tennis provided its usual drama with Leander Paes as usual in its epicenter! Paes pulled out at the very last minute expressing his unhappiness at the doubles combinations (déjà vu!!!). When will this Paes saga end? 

Meanwhile our Swimming Federation sent in wrong qualifying timings (!!!), ensuring our swimmers ended up in slower heats!

And for the Games themselves. First the Olympic events

• Shooting: Our shooters are getting younger and younger with each passing event! A good haul this time around and a whole new crop of shooters is ready to roar at the World arena.
• Athletics: Our athletes are the best amongst Asians. It was quite a weird sight, seeing India earn silver in race after race losing out to African origin athletes. Bahrain and Qatar seem to have done a good job in outsourcing their sports department! Meanwhile we continue our “niche dominance” in Women’s 4x400m relay winning our 5th consecutive Asiad Gold. Neeraj Chopra was certainly a class-apart in Javelin Throw. All four of his valid throws were way ahead of the rest of the field. What a dominating performance.
• Medals arrived in Table Tennis – our first ever. Manika Batra is definitely one to watch out for proving that the Commonwealth Games were not just a flash in the pan. And this is one sport where the Asian level is as competitive as the World stage.
• Hockey: It was a tale of missed opportunities. After hammering all and sundry, both the teams came a cropper at the critical juncture, missing out on Olympics berths. Only consolation is with Japan winning both events, an extra quota has opened up in other Qualifiers.
• Wrestling – Bajrang Punia & Vinesh are world class, while rest have to start catching up. And is it the end of road for Sushil Kumar!
• Badminton: One sport where the world level is hardly much different from the Asian level. Had our best medal haul till date. The doubles teams are improving but still not there yet. But the early loss in Men’s singles was surprising.
• Boxing: Amit Panghal defeated an Olympic champion to win the Gold, but overall the boxing contingent is slipping back.
• Rowing: A sport where we improved our medal tally and yet felt like we have underachieved! So many 4th place finishes!
• Gymnastics: No medals but a big silver lining. It’s not just Dipa Karmakar anymore. Dipa is expanding her range and there are other gymnasts making their presence felt.
• Tennis: We got back the Men’s Doubles Gold, and a couple of singles medals. 
• Sailing: A few medals, but not sure about further chances
• Equestrian: We got a medal after 36 years. Makes me wonder why we did not participate in the Olympics qualifiers also last time!
• Fencing – Pretty sure this was the first appearance of the fencing team. They did make their presence felt but can’t read much into that.
• Swimming: Like at Gold Coast, many new National records, a few finals, but nowhere in the hunt for a podium finish except for a solitary 4th place.
• The Martial Arts – Nothing of note in the Olympic sports – Judo, Karate, Taekwondo. But we picked up medals in the non-Olympic ones – Wushu & Kurash. How does somebody decide their calling as representing India in Kurash or Pencak Silat!
• Golf: Wonder why amateurs participate in Asian Games while Olympics allows pros!
• Team Sports, with the exception of Hockey & Kabaddi, are an area where India made hardly any mark. Football, Handball, Water Polo, Volleyball, Basketball – nothing to note in any of these events.
• Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu was missed.

And for the events not in Tokyo roster.

• Kabaddi – no Golds this time. It was coming for some time, but India are now well and truly knocked off their pedestal. And just to rub salt in the wounds, Iran is claiming to be the spiritual home of Kabaddi. Will India come back or will be go down the slippery slope a la Hockey! In the Kabaddi is the real winner here!
• Bridge – Who would have imagined cards as a sport at Asian Games. Or that e-sports will be a demonstration sport with likely inclusion at the next Games!

No quotas for Tokyo earned during the Asian Games! But we have certainly identified strong potential representatives for raising the Indian flag at Tokyo in 2020. And most importantly no doping issues (so far). Thankfully!

Links:

• Road to Tokyo 2020 Episode 3
• India at Asian Games 2018 – Wikipedia