Just Looking: John Maeda

Sunday, September 16, 2007

John Maeda

John Maeda is a Prof at MIT. He teaches design.

Here's his blog: http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY/

During my stint at Harvard, I was keen to attend his courses.

Somehow, it never happened.

His blog is interesting and a must read.

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We Create What We Want

We get what we want, or what we don't refuse. We accept the fact that we will always have poor people around us, and that poverty is part of human destiny. This is precisely why we continue to have poor people around us. If we firmly believe that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have built appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world. We wanted to go to the moon, so we went there. We achieve what we want to achieve. If we are not achieving something, it is because we have not put our minds to it. We create what we want. What we want and how we get to it depends on our mindsets. It is extremely difficult to change mindsets once they are formed. We create the world in accordance with our mindset. We need to invent ways to change our perspective continually and reconfigure our mindset quickly as new knowledge emerges. We can reconfigure our world if we can reconfigure our mindset. - Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate

Meditation: Knowledge v/s Action

I am more emphatically interested in meditation than in discussions. These discussions are just to give you a push, to satisfy you in an intellectual way, just to give you a feeling that whatsoever you are doing is very intellectual, rational.

It is not.

So whatsoever I have been saying is in a way quite opposite of what I have been trying to pull you into. My approach as far as these discussions are concerned, is rational, just to satisfy you, just to give you some toys to play with so that you can be persuaded into something else.

That something else is not rational, its irrational.

Our meditation is just a jump into irrational existence. And existence is irrational, it is mystic, it is a mystery. So please do not cling to what I have said to you; rather, cling to whatsoever I have persuaded you to do.

Do it, and someday you will realise that whatsoever I have said is meaningful.

But if you go on clinging to what I have said, it may give you knowledge, it may make you more knowledgeable, but you will not attain to knowing. And whatsoever I have said may even become a hindrance.

- OSHO

Why Agriculture is Critical for India's Progress?

We talked of IT. What is IT? It is the arbitrage between the per hour rate in the US and India. We have gone from zero to $20 billion in exporting software, employing about 1 million people in 10 years. These million people changed the brand of India, consumption pattern and gave us the confidence that we can do everything.

The arbitrage has narrowed but is still there. It will disappear in a few decades by which time our software exports may be $100 billion. From a million people, it will benefit 10 million people. If that is what has happened in software, imagine what will happen in agriculture.

Let me give you some numbers. Take potatoes, the most common food across the world. From Bill Gates to my driver, everybody eats potatoes. Now, plot the prices. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar get about Rs 4-5 a kilo; in the Middle East, the wholesale price is about Rs 25-30 a kilo. In the US, Sam's Club, it is Rs 90 a kilo. In Europe, it is Rs 110 a kilo. The arbitrage is 1:20. If we get our produce right, and if the US market is opened up, you will be surprised how quickly we reach $20 billion.

The food market is much bigger than the software services market. And the money goes straight into the hands of millions of farmers. The spinoffs are enormous -- jobs, houses, durables, a whole new consumption boom will start in rural areas.

- Mukesh Ambani

For full interview pls log: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jan/19inter.htm

Truth is a Pathless Land

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Elegance of Simplicity

Simplicity is of great value. There is also a sense of elegance, of the appropriate, of balance in being simple in a country where the majority of people don't have enough. Excess is a vulgarity in India. Politically, socially, economically, excess is in bad taste. There are greater chances of corruption if simplicity is not followed. Let us remember that simple things do not lack quality. Simplicity does not mean deprivation. A mundu veshti can be as beautiful as an expensive Kancheevaram silk. The simple weave of an ‘ordinary' Santhal sari can be exquisite on its own. Beauty or pleasure need not be equated with money. Something beautiful need not cost thousands of rupees. Somewhere this debate must come back to public life. It is a fact that what we do and say is a political statement, as is our lifestyle. In a country where you are fighting for systems that work, governments that are accountable, laws that work, infrastructure that functions, we need to share our national resources responsibly so that opportunities become available to more Indians. - Aruna Roy

Just Looking

Sunday, September 16, 2007

John Maeda

No comments:

ifidontwhowill?

About Me

We Create What We Want

Meditation: Knowledge v/s Action

Poverty and Humanity

Why Agriculture is Critical for India's Progress?

Truth is a Pathless Land

The Elegance of Simplicity

Non-violence unexplored

Blog Archive

Just Looking

Sunday, September 16, 2007

John Maeda

No comments:

ifidontwhowill?

About Me

We Create What We Want

Meditation: Knowledge v/s Action

Poverty and Humanity

Why Agriculture is Critical for India's Progress?

Truth is a Pathless Land

The Elegance of Simplicity

Non-violence unexplored

Blog Archive

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