As a Millennial, I have been fortunate enough to reap the benefits of the invent of the internet for basically my entire life. While I do know of a world without the internet, smart phones, and Jimmy Johns online ordering system, I recognize the value that these seemingly small conveniences add to my life. Flashback to the fall of 1997. It’s an ordinary Monday morning and my mom’s getting me ready for my first day of Kindergarten. How will she know exactly what time it’s going to rain today? Will I need my rain boots for recess? Will she know what time to leave to beat the traffic and ensure that I’m not late for my very first day as a kindergartener? After all, Waze won’t be invented for nearly another decade! If we get a flat tire on the way to said school, how will she call for help without the Progressive roadside assistance app, let alone, a cell … Continue reading →

In this day and age of the algorithms, everyone including me is gaga over algorithms. However, algorithms have limits, especially in matters of inalienable rights such as healthcare, education, liberty and justice. For instance, if algorithms are applied to increase healthcare insurance costs for select individuals/organizations based on sex, age, past use of health benefits, something has gone wrong. This is where ethics need to kick in to ensure that algorithms aren’t used to impinge on fundamental inalienable rights of individuals. Also, if biometric algorithms are used to discriminate based on race, religion and my social networks, I believe that we will have moved from a civil society to a draconian soul-less society.

What happens when the economy goes south? Well, the obvious stuff — as consumers and as businesses we buy less, postpone major purchases, waste less, and try to develop a sense of financial aikido to defend ourselves from an unforgiving market. One of the things we get really good at is stretching dollars by keeping more things inside our own house, our own business, our own life. My experience may be similar to yours: I try to do more things myself, which means I have more things to get done. And on an already full to-do list, that’s a challenge at home, and at work. The popularity of the GTD (Getting Things Done) system authored by David Allen in his book and website, tells me that people are feeling the press of lotsa things to get done, and not enough time to do it all. If you’re a marketer, the good news here may be that if you can help … Continue reading →

Well, “nag” is a strong word, but here’s an interesting site that will keep you electronically engaged. A friend of mine pointed me to I Want Sandy (www.iwantsandy.com), a web assistant . Sandy is very nice, for a figment of my digital imagination, and sends timely, pleasant reminders to my email inbox and/or my mobile phone. It would be nice if Sandy had a built-in text-to-speech app that could say, “excuse me Abu (or even, “Hey, baby” if I want to get digitally intimate) but here are some things you need to take care of…” but for now it’s nice just to have someone who cares enough to keep me on track. The next-gen part of it all is of course, when can I get Sandy to actually do the things for me (like automatically pay the bills I specify on a date when I’m certain the money will be there, as opposed to the extant system of being date-specific), … Continue reading →

A million years ago (well, 1978) I was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York enjoying an exhibition put together by then-curator John Szarkowski entitled “Mirrors and Windows.” The thesis of the exhibition was that photography was either a mirror of what was around the photographer or a window into the photographer’s or subject’s reality or worldview. It was an extraordinary exhibition of some of the greatest photographs by some of the greatest photographers (Dorthea Lange, Gene Smith, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander; you get the idea). As I check popurls every morning (one of my morning rituals), I’m always a little taken aback by some of the images on the flickr feed. Many are very good photographs, but the thing that often strikes me is how intimate some of them are, and I’m not speaking just conceptually. Some of them are almost exhibitionistic; many are striking windows into a person’s life. Which makes me wonder: is this part … Continue reading →