Trinity

Viswamitra · Jun 6, 2015

Recently, I read an article written by Christopher Surdak explaining how the world is changing after introduction of what he calls as “Trinity of Technologies”. He referred to “Social Media, Mobility and Data Analytics as three technologies that are disruptive, persuasive and pervasive. According to him he had discussions with leaders of large organizations and their responses were, “Social Media is for teenage kids wasting time” and “Mobility isn’t real business”. He also added some leaders stating, “Big Data is just hype”. Lastly he said some leaders said, “I don’t need data to tell me how to run my business”. He literally compared their ignorance to the White Star Management, Designers and Engineers, the Captain and crew, the passengers and the news media of yesteryears who truly believed Titanic is unsinkable and invulnerable resulting in navigating it in full speed through ice bergs in the Atlantic Ocean.

This thought of Christopher Surdak made me think a lot about real life situation that is applicable to me. I am receiving enormous amount of data from the time I was born until today. In addition, the opening up of the world happened through the internet revolution gives immediate access to almost everything that I care to look. I have the option to ignore a lot of data I receive unnecessarily. I should have the ability to look at the Meta Data and use it wisely for running my life. I should sharpen my tool to store only the data that is relevant and develop a technique to analyze them wisely for building my character. I could trip and fall in the process but if I have the right values, I will be able to do mid-course correction to put myself in the path of recovery. I have to have processes that enables to clean up the memory from time to time. The focus on relevant data would help me achieve a lot more in life than what I could dream to achieve in a life time. My focus on thoughts that are meaningful defines who I become.

Similarly, my family and friends play an important role in shaping my character. Learned people say that “Please share the company you keep and I will tell you who you are”. The interaction I have with them, how I structure my relationship with them makes a big difference in life. If my relationships or friendships are not based on love and equality, it affects me more than anyone else. Conflicts would arise between family members and friends. Living life without conflict is difficult, if not impossible. More than resolving them, how we approach that conflict makes the big difference in defining the relationship/friendship. I have to learn to look at the good values that my family members and friends have and ignore the bad qualities in them. Even if any of their bad qualities results in antagonizing me, I should learn to forget and forgive those in order to improve my quality of life as it has more impact on me than others. No relationship/friendship should be considered unimportant and I should be able to differentiate the acquaintances with friends. No relationship/friendship should be formed in order to gain any benefit and it should be formed unrelated to any specific expectations. I learn lessons along the process of building friendships/relationships and I should be as prepared to disconnect as much as I wish to connect, if that is going to help. But there is no life without socializing and I can never be who I am without people around me.

How I communicate in life with relatives and friends makes the big difference and it defines my character. I have to learn to listen carefully to the voice of the friends and relatives before speaking my mind. I have to think carefully before I speak or write anything. Communication is to strengthen relationships/friendships and therefore it should be done with complete devotion to it and not to impress them. I have to show the same level of affinity I show to my smartphone when I build relationships/friendships. Besides my communication, I also should know people watch my actions more than what I say. I should be able to walk the talk. Time is of the essence to lead a purposeful life and I need to realize where to spend my time. When I access my smart phone, there are hundred ads that asks to me download apps that may or may not be useful. My thoughts, words and actions are responsible for building an ideal and purposeful life and I need to invest time on right relationships/friendships like me determining to have only the right apps in my smartphone. Energy, time and money are the tools I have to apply wisely as I show care in saving the battery life of my smart phone and discussing the relevant topics over the long distance phone to save time and money.

To conclude, how I get information and interpret them, how I interact with family and friends and how I communicate with them determines the quality of my life. These three elements in my life are disruptive, persuasive and pervasive. I need to understand the importance of interdependence and hence I have to collaborate in order to achieve my goals. I have to also realize that I am not unsinkable and invulnerable to motor myself into trouble. I should be willing to change understanding the conditions.

Poetlatha · Jun 7, 2015

Viswa Sir,

Very meaningful topic, I value People and their communication more rather than the modern techno amenities. I feel technology has ruined our life because the communication between people is becoming lesser and lesser. When used for right purpose and in moderation, technology is a big plus to us. Like even our IL family here, where we share a lot of things and help out each other. But when people get addicted to it, it's bad. Relationships contribute largely in shaping our character. Thanks for sharing Sir.

jayasala42 · Jun 7, 2015

Dear Viswa,

You have taken an interesting topic for discussion.It is ok,we have to analyse , sieve ,take the good values.
People that have lived in joint family system may be able to tell you that on many occasions we analyse and analyse ,try to weed off the insignificant things.Ultimately sometimes nothing worth remains.Comparison, jealousy and bad mouthing-appappa, we want to run away from the crowd and want to be alone, think for ourselves and decide what is best.
When we were in village, people said that gossiping is too much here.Once we move to pattanam',that is Madras, we can live freely.We moved to Madras.Here too we find that people are more interested in other families than to rectify themselves.Then they said that in north Indian cities like Bombay, they don't bother much because of language problem. But Bombay is no longer different and bay area in California is another Kumbakonam in gossiping. I have come to a definite conclusion that human mind is the same everywhere. They keep a limit until they don't know you much.Once you establish social relationship, politics starts there.
Intimacy instead of creating harmony disrupts the same.Sometimes it may be better to keep arm's length to everyone.
Many people are no longer interested in disruptive,persuasive and pervasive relationship.
'One cut and two bits'- has become the policy in almost all the houses.Women are more affected by these persuasive dialogues rather than men.Today I attended a wedding. The girl's mother, due to some family dispute has not invited her own brothers living in the next street.They meet at courts very often discussing legal disputes over the property.
Forum relationship, Face book ties are entirely different. They may not have any personal contacts.
There is a proverb in Tamil,'Kitta vanthaal mutta pagai'.( too much proximity breeds contempt)I very often see that people living abroad ,when they visit Chennai meet many relatives, have warm enquiries .Once they settle back in India all the warmth vanishes and they mingle with goosiping gangs.
MIL -DIL conflicts became severe because of this over interruption.Now for fear of complexities we have separate establishment for son/daughters soon after marriage.This speaks not of generosity of parents -in-law but just an escapism to avoid day to day conflicts. When they meet occasionally it is a hello-hello relationship as in a forum ,where no one wants to disrupt.
Human nature is to interrupt, persuade and pervade.Now there is no question of allowing persuasion, forgetting, forgiving etc but merely escape and avoid persuasion.
This is the harsh reality almost 90% of the families face.There are exceptions, I do agree, but at what compromise we don't know.

jayasala 42

Viswamitra · Jun 7, 2015

@Poetlatha,

Thank you for your very first response. Well, there are two sides everything we come across in life. Yes. Technology could be dangerous sometimes but it is a facilitator most of the time. When someone gets addicted to technology, it becomes bad such as spending most time in social media or hooked into a game, etc. However, technology brings enormous amount of knowledge to the doorsteps, makes relatives who live far away from home due to world becoming a global village connect and enjoy the company, bring quality of day to day life, etc. It is my humble view, anything that is used moderately with purpose makes a big difference in life. It is my humble view that we need to change according to the new needs of the world. Technology development is one of them.

But, in this post, I was not discussing the importance of technology and I was only trying to take lessons from technology development into real life. I was trying to learn how data that we receive, interaction with friends and relatives and communication with them affects our life just like data analytics, social media and mobility affects technology.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Jun 7, 2015

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

You are right about some families having relationship issues especially when they are a joint family or even if they live separately. But in most cases, when someone else were to get involved or some important functions like marriage, etc. were to take place, they get together to put united front to make others aware that they are together. In my view, togetherness does not necessarily come by unified view of the world but finding a compromise in viewpoints of diversity.

The only reason why I wrote this post is to compare the importance of adaption of new technologies with that of changing world environment and need for human beings to learn lessons out of changing world environment. In the previous generation, the happiness were derived by relatives getting together and in the new generation, they are perfectly okay to interact through social media. Earlier, if we had important thing to talk about, we visited people but now everyone prefers to speak important topics over smart/mobile phone. In business, people met face to face for meetings and now people prefer to meet over video-conference to save travel time. People attended national conferences earlier to update their technical knowledge but now the same knowledge is available in their finger tips through internet and social media. Earlier, grandparents who played a ballgame with a child was cool but now only the grandparents who can teach how to use the tablet is cool. Older generation has a lot of catching up to do with new generation.

We can't change people around us or the world, the only thing that can be changed is our own mind and character. As each generation develops, their approach also changes and unless we understand how they think, it is difficult for us to adapt to their requirements. In the earlier generations, children just educated themselves as directed by the parents and now children choose their own field of education and parents can only counsel and not direct.

Therefore, it is my humble view that our quality of life is dependent upon watching the changes and adapting to it.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Jun 7, 2015

@Beatclub,

You said it even better than how I said it in a whole post. As you rightly pointed out, it is the system of storing and retrieving data that makes the difference. Understanding interdependency is important like what happens in a supply chain. It is the consistent and coordinated effort to find the solution out of massive amount of data that produces results.

Viswa

Poetlatha · Jun 8, 2015

Viswa sir,

Thank you for taking the time and patiently explaining it Sir. Now, I m able to get a clear picture of what you were trying to say.

meenasankaran · Jun 8, 2015

Dear Viswa sir,

The only 'trinity' that I know are the 3 great composers of carnatic music.

I had to read this snippet a few times for it contained a lot of 'big data' for my little chip of a brain. But I enjoyed processing your data for what I got out of it was a gem of a post.

I often tell my younger DD essentially the same thing. As a teenager with free access to the wonders of technology, I tell her to take care with it and to use her discretion to filter out good from bad on the internet. My biggest worry is that she may lose her social skills in the real world because she is too busy socializing with her friends on the virtual one. I will be sure to have her read your snippet Viswa sir. As always, I am in awe of your analytical mind. :bowdown

PushpavalliSrinivasan · Jun 8, 2015

Dear Viswa,

When I read your snippet I remembered the famous quote of John Donn " No man is an island." We are all interdependent and so we should try to have cordial relationship with people we interact. They might be friends, relatives, colleagues or even pets. Even people who serve us will expect respectful treatment. Hence communication plays a major role in this.

Any relationship with expectations might lead to disappointment. But it is human nature to expect something in return.

I really admire you for striving to achieve all good qualities.
PS
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Viswamitra · Jun 8, 2015

Dear Meena,

Having the last name as Sankaran, I am pretty sure you are familiar with another Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. However, your first line confirms that you are a music lover without which you won't mention the names of Shyama Sastri, Thiagayyar and Muthusamy Dikshidar.

I vehemently disagree on you describing your brain as a little chip. The right hemisphere is for memory and left hemisphere is for analysis. Your posts indicates the health of right hemisphere as you remember everyone you meet including Bob, the tireless shoe-salesman/fitter. Your responses to posts indicates the health of analytical brain. Most importantly, they are all soaked in humor.

I really don't know what to say in response to your last paragraph. I am extremely humbled by your generous appreciation especially to know Meena, the mother is considering this snippet as something worthy of asking her daughter to read.

Now, I hope and pray that I don't disappoint you and live up to your expectation in my future posts.

Viswa