Random Musings for a Change

Off late I have been using this platform to write lengthy posts about the books I have been reading. However, this time I want to share a few personal thoughts musings I have had.

Harvard Commencement Speech by Mark Zuckerberg - 2017

I found it pretty powerful and positive. The points he touched upon in his speech and the conviction with which he talked generated optimism towards the future.

He talked how our system is biased towards success – how we should reward failures. The highlight for me was he acknowledged that many people don’t take risks or charter into unfamiliar territories just because they don’t have a cushion to fall back on (universal basic income to be the solution?); and how lucky he was to not have such worries while studying.

He reminded that the earlier generation struggled to get the right to vote and have their voice heard. And as a natural progression this generation will have to take up the cudgels to make it easy for everyone to exercise the right their forefathers earned. Modernizing democracy – online voting might NOT be an outrageous possibility in the future.  

Another arcane aspect of society which needs revolution is Education. It occurred to me hearing him that it is a matter of time that this rigid system will change. I do not know what form it will take. Maybe it will become move at your own pace i.e based on your ability – no stigma associated if you take more time to go to college, or more inter-disciplinary stuff, more specializations, online education? Since I’m trying to peek into the future – above possibilities could be totally wrong. It might go the other way. However, I’m sure it will change.

I liked that he reminded us that not enough funds are being generated to diagnose why people get sick at the first place. Rather 50 times more money is spent to treat them. Now this can be a tricky area since pharmaceutical companies are Wall Street companies – operating for-profit thus pricing medicines exorbitantly to make up for their R&D and shareholder value. Still, it is fascinating to imagine that eventually we will have breakthroughs via which we all could be disease free.

Also, he reminded us that the future generations will lead a life much different than their predecessors. More tech in their lives, normal jobs would disappear thanks to automation – the whole way of life as we know it would change. As associated with every unknown – thinking about it brings some anxiety and lots of excitement.

Who reads Blogs these days?

I see most people around me having short attention spans. Sometimes I feel does anyone even read people’s blogs. Is blogging dead? Is it going to be the next Myspace? What about people like me – who don’t write about fashion, films and entertainment – will they ever get page-hits? Is there still a non-zero chance for them to be a runaway hit?!