Be a Generalist!

I have always associated negative connotations with the proverb - "Jack of all trades, master of none". As if something is amiss if you know something about everything but do not know everything of something. Basically, in one way or the other emphasizing the need to be a specialist/expert in at atleast one domain. Over time this has manifested itself in many different forms -  Students very early on like to choose their majors, parents choose the sport for their kids and follow the hyped regimen as Tiger Woods' father followed with his kid (and even wrote a book about it :Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life), but this is not a one-size-fits-all formula. (Read: Polgar sisters).

This book challenges the above and many such notions. 

• It says that the often mentioned theory of 10,000 hours is not necessarily true - as dabbling in various interests helps gain some extra skills before the person identifies what they want to specialize in. The author put forward the example of Roger Federer who played many "ball-sports" before finalizing that he wanted to focus on tennis. However, trying out many other sports helped him acquire some level of other skills through them.
  
  
• People often succeed because of their range of interests and experiences not just because of it.
  
  
• It seemed that specialization is inevitably required but "delayed specialization" is what the author seemed to advocate. Although, part of me still felt at the end of the book that even without specialization one can succeed.
  
  
• "Facts that challenge basic assumptions and thereby, threaten people's livelihood and self-esteem - are simply not absorbed. The mind does not digest them."
  -Daniel Kahneman wrote in 2011 in NYT article "Don't blink". This quote explains why sometimes we wonder how educated people can subscribe to crazy, silly ideas.
  
  
• Section of the book deals with Does Experience lead to Expertise?
  The answer is depends on the domain in question. (also, another way of attacking the 10,000 hours-to-master-a-skill theory).
  
  
• The author says that experience leading to expertise is only true for situations which are "statistically regular". Like - chess, golf, doing taxes, surgery.
  
  
• But the moment a domain is not regular as in you reverse the order of things - people aren't able to handle it.
  
  
• The author then ties it to "education system". How most students don't have the critical thinking skills. Because their discipline is solely focused on narrow specialization. Although, he calls out "Economics" to be an exception - it's a subject that promotes critical thinking!
  
  
• And, the argument is tied to how "Range" or inter-disciplinary knowledge helps in critical thinking.
  
  
• With a range of extensive examples, related to music - where musicians with no formed training and infact who played other instruments were successfully able to transition to a different instrument - the author concludes that 
  "....the more contexts in which something is learned, the more the learner creates abstract models, and the less they rely on a particular example. Learners become better at applying their knowledge to a situation they've never seen before which is the essence of creativity." 
  
  
• "Learning Fast and Slow" - the book seemed to deep dive into pedagogy - how children learn and what's the best technique to learn. It is about how much you struggle/grapple with a problem. The key takeaway is :
  i) The more you struggle, the better long-lasting learning it is.
  ii) The more time you give in b/w practice the better it is.
  
  
• The author gives a fascinating account of how Jonathan Kepler relied and used "Analogical Thinking" to deal with problems refusing to accept roundabout explanations/hypothesis and eventually lay down the foundation for Astrophysics.
  
  
• Collectively, as a group - a group which is having people of varied backgrounds i.e people having dissimilar level of info -are the most likely to solve a problem. Even individually - "connections across disciplines" is what helps in thinking outside-the-box experience/analogies.
  
  
• The author makes a nuanced point - that too much of grit is bad! (Wonder what Angela Duckworth thinks about it). He gives the example of Vincent Van Gogh - who moved from passion to passion in a short-period of time before he ended up on his style where he excelled at. At this part, the author brings up the idea of MATCH QUALITY - trying out new things which match your abilities.
  
  
• Too Much Grit stops one from moving on to the other thing.
  
  
• It is very valuable to know when to quit. And he says that the hoary advice - "never quit" is not right.
  
  
• In the chapter titled "Flirting with our possible selves" - it is emphasized that we should be open to and experience range of things.
  
  
• It is basically, the oft-given advice that we should try new things as who knows what hidden talent we might have.
  
  
• Also, a brief section over personality. It is influenced by both nature and environment. As we grow, our preferences - likes/dislikes change and so does our personality.
  
  
• I specially like Paul Graham's graduation speech. He said 
   It is a bit insidious to say "never give up on your dreams". That's wrong! It is as to say there is some grand plan already and you have to keep pushing at it. 
  
  
• You should not choose options which lead you to a goal. Rather ones which give you the most range of experiences.
  
  
• Being an outsider to a field helps a great deal in looking at the problem differently. This is the reason why companies like InnoCentive are hugely successful. This phenomenon has been displayed so many times.
  
  
• It is best summarized as the more specialized info that is available, the more info for curious dilettantes to consume that disparate info and make connections.
  
  
• The chapter "Lateral Thinking With Withered Technology" talks about how lateral thinking can reap dividends.
  
  
• Lateral Thinking -  reimagine info in new contexts or connecting seemingly disparate info to give old ideas new uses.
  
  
• The analogy of Birds v/s Frogs is also quite interesting. 
  Birds - can be considered as Visionary as they can see far.
  Frogs - can be considered as Detailed as they can see deeper.
  
  
• It also clarifies that a specialization might be the most useful when a same situation with identified routines has to be repeated - example a putt in Golf.
  
  
• This is a quality of serial innovators - ability to connect disparate pieces of info and they have breadth of knowledge.
  
  
• The author dedicates a full chapter on Experts - (they are hyper-specialized in their domains) and how even after being so "scientifically literate" they remain glued to their "views" and keep doubling down on them, bending the more info they gather to "fit their theory".
  
  
• Another elaborate analogy using animals that I found very interesting  is "hedgehogs and foxes".
  Hedgehogs can be understood to have narrow-views while foxes are integrators who know many little things.
  
  
• Foxes treat ideas like Instagram filters so much so that it may appear hard for the other person to figure out what the fox actually believes in.
  
  
• Foxes are looking for people/facts/ideas to push back against their view as they are viewing their opinions as "hypothesis in need of testing".
  
  
• Foxes hunt for info as - Roam freely (read/consume material supporting or against their view) + Listen carefully + consume from everywhere ("omnivorous").
  
  
• Foxes exhibit = "Active open-mindedness".
  
  
• It is true that "scientifically literate adults" are more dogmatic as they are good at finding info that re-inforces their viewpoint. (Confirmation bias).
  
  
• "Drop familiar tools" - is about not sticking to the tools and processes you have been working with all along. 
  The author gives good references of case studies of Carter Racing and Wildfire fighters.
  
  
• Stickler to data can be dangerous specially if there isn't enough data (quantitative analysis).
  Richard Feynman said -  "When you don't have data, you have to use reason".
  
  
• In an organization, often people treat the time-tested process as something that can't be bypassed. The author reminds that there is no tool or process that cannot be abandoned or dropped if the need arises.
  
  
• In organizations, where there is too much focus on conformance - there are many missteps and because people don't spot it, they continue to live in fool's paradise. Rather, it's better that organizations should ideally promote informal individualism i.e not have a hierarchical chain of command so it doesn't happen that there is just one-way chain of communication.

Covid Bonds

The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The virus still is out floating around and the economic impact of everyone staying indoors is unfolding. While it is the right decision for everyone to stay indoors, and slow the spread, it has definitely brought the wheel of the economic cycle to a grinding halt. This is something that has never happened before and there is no playbook to follow. Re-starting the economic cycle will require some innovative, ingenious ways. 

 

Revenues for governments at the state level via taxes (sales tax etc) have almost dried up due to a sharp fall in economic activity. This has not only put at risk lots of government run programmes and schemes but also put severe strain on the exchequer. 

 

In a lot of ways, the current scenario draws similarities with WWII except this time the enemy is a microbe. Taking a leaf out of the history book - “War Bonds” were issued during WWII so as to finance the U.S government’s involvement. Over 85 million Americans bought those war bonds, and by 1946, it had raised over $185 billion dollars which translates to $2.4 trillion in present day terms. 

The same route can be adopted by the government. to finance its efforts to manufacture PPE, fund more clinical trials and studies for drugs to cure Covid-19 and when a cure or vaccine is found these bonds can help finance its large scale manufacture and distribution to every corner of the country. These bonds can range from a maturity period of 20-30 years, be tax-free and provide an interest rate of 3-4%.

In the current climate everyone is feeling the sting of the lockdown and even though social interactions have dropped to zero, the urge to help one another is at a peak. I’m sure such “Covid 19 bonds” will receive a very warm response from investors, hedge funds and even small households. This is not inherently a new concept - European Union is already considering it. India can move ahead and show the world how to cleverly manage its finances, care for its people and not let its institutions starve for much needed funds. 

 

The Box: Internet Alone did not bring Globalization

I do not remember where I read about this book but I do remember adding it to my To-Read list. But when I got to it was worth the recommendation! Wonderful book - which gave me lots of valuable insights and perspective on how the world has not solely been transformed by bits and bytes alone. The book's TL;DR can easily be - Globalization did not happen only cause of the Internet, It was the 

Container which laid the groundwork. If the transportation industry hadn't figured out how to ship products from one corner of the world to other efficiently with lowest costs - no matter how easy was it for two people to talk across the world, higher costs would have deterred any free flow of commerce and trade.

I also understood how seemingly slow changes change the course of society and ultimately transform cities and towns unheard before - changing the fortunes of many overnight.

Some might argue that this book is academic and dry at places but having read it thoroughly I would point that the author did an extremely good job in covering all aspects revolving around the container technology - the shippers, trucker, dockworkers, exporters and regulators who were at the center of it but also the macro effect.

What I wish would have been there was some maps of the shipping routes to help the reader easily visualize the challenges and travails of maritime trade. 

Overall it was a great read - feel like I learnt quite a few things!

The Internet is given a lot of credit for the globalization - how the world came closer and trade between countries far across became possible. But it is containerization that was a major precursor to the internet revolution which made the Internet impact possible.

Containers - “the box” made logistically possible how competition would be right there at the doorstep - forcing almost all industries to innovate and take measures to cut costs to stay in the game. 

Ideal X - First container ship to sail in 1956 from Newark to Houston 

Before containers were a thing - shipping was done in break-bulk ships as in all commodities were stocked in the cargo hold of the ship. (breakbulk - all discrete items had to be handled individually - cement bags next to sugar next to copper wires). There was no pattern in how the items were stored - often it would require that at a port all the items to be unloaded because the cargo meant for the that port was at the bottom under all other cargo. Also, loading & unloading was all done by dock workers and longshoremen which were all unionized. Since it was all manual labor they had very less incentive to be efficient which was in direct contrast to the shippers’ interests.

It is also worth mentioning that the working conditions at the docks were not at all safe. Dock workers had low salaries and they had to literally fight to get a job each day by assembling at the square - waiting for the ship to arrive whenever that maybe. Going to home to grab a quick bite or for other errands even though the ship was scheduled for arrival in the evening - usually meant losing their spot in the queue. All this unorganized system meant that the dockworkers had developed more 

loyalty towards each other than to the company. They formed unions which were interested in drawing up contracts with every minute detail like time to take breaks and how long they would be in.

Another thing that happened was that these unions were strictly against outsiders - with the dockworkers living near the docks - it became a family profession i.e the grandfather got his son his place in the docks when he retired and the son tried to make sure no outsiders came in so as to reserve a place for his son in the future. The dockworkers culture was very insular.

Even after unloading a complicated web of interchanges from the port to trucks, trains, planes and ferries awaited the exporters - which drove up the costs. Freight transportation was ultimately too unpredictable for manufacturer to take risk on delivering on time. Large inventory thus became a need to keep the production lines moving. With all these inefficiencies ships spent more time anchored at the docks than sailing which was what it should be primarily doing. The shipping industry was crying in need of an innovation to fix all these problems.

Malcolm McLean came up with this idea of containers and the first container ship - a refitted oil tanker sailed in 1956. It brought with it these benefits: 

• all items could be stored without the need to be handled individually,
  
• also it stopped cases of thefts - thus driving down insurance costs,
  
• The shipping line company over the years made the loading & unloading process more efficient using machinery and custom built cranes - cause of which the longshoremen gangs size constantly dropped from a once all time high of 22. Ultimately all that is needed now is a crane operator who sits many feet above the ground in a crane and picks up the container via the hooks on its corners and places it on a truck (or a flat railway car) and the truck (or the train) drives away to a distribution hub where the container is unloaded - thus reducing the time ship spent waiting for its cargo to unload.
  
• Lots of cities which were hesitant to invest or lacked foresight to see the change coming in maritime industry via containers - missed out.
  On the West coast - Los Angeles, Oakland - Alameda (home to Matson), Seattle and on the East coast - New York (after substantial investment), Savannah (late joiner) cashed in as traditional hubs like San Francisco, Portland and in Europe- London, Liverpool and Paris missed out.
  Globally, Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Antwerp in Europe and China with its relentless investments in its shipping ports caught up late but now is the leader with the most busiest and thriving ports. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_container_ports
  
• The shipping line companies were earlier organized more as cartels (they were called “conferences”) - they charged for every type of commodity in the cargo which didn’t make sense. And if an exporter ever used any shipping line outside the conference - the next time he tried to use any of the shipping lines of the conference he had to pay fine and pay more over. With the advent of containerships - what was inside a container became immaterial. TEU (20 foot Equivalent Units) became the unit on what was charged. Also, resistance of unions, the proximity of the port to the nearest railroad and trucking routes became super important on where the ships would make a stop. Little known ports benefitted.
  
• Some of the shipping lines tried to tap on the containerization- commissioning new ships to be built for different sizes of containers - a capital intensive project. This was before container sizes were standardized. Different sizes was a problem as it meant all container ships couldn’t stop at any ports as often a port wasn’t equipped with containers of various sizes. Many trucking and railroad companies couldn’t handle different container sizes - thus providing an opportunity for a mini-cartel. There was a difference in container sizes in use between Europe and USA causing logistical nightmares. Until after a long drawn process standardized the container-sizes bringing in some semblance of order.
  
• The time the first container ship sailed in 1956 is consequential as around the same time lots of ports on the Pacific side lost traffic as lumber moved on to road leaving the huge investments as white elephants. It revived the slowing maritime trade. 

If you look around today you can see the undeniable impact of containers all around us - Amazon and e-commerce websites ship multitude of items to their customers all in a box - inspired by the steel container. At a few places you can see people living out of containers or even hosting creative studios or workshops.

Another interesting observation I had was that Malcolm McLean - the pioneer of this technology was not able to cash in completely on the revolution his brainchild ushered. Read about his struggles to keep his shipping line companies (SeaLand and United States Lines) afloat. There were others who built on top of his vision and made the benefits of this technology more profound. Perhaps, this is what should happen - people build on top of each others ideas and visions to arrive at a magnificent future whose scope is way beyond the original idea. Major reason why competition is a good thing!

Interesting tidbits: 

• BBC did story called the Box Project where it covered the journey of the box. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/business/2008/the_box/default.stm

• Panama Canal - how locks work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHmaZw5j1is

• World’s Largest Containership makes its maiden call at a port 

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moxpa7f1BqM

Our Towns - Criscrossing the USA

I picked this book because of a few reasons –

·      Have never read a travelogue. (Got to know about certain legendary one’s courtesy this – Mark Twain’s, John Steinbeck’s and Lewis & Clark)

·      I am interested to visit all the 50 states, and  learn and experience how USA is like. I thought while that may take sometime I might as well read about a few small towns and places (not just the touristy ones)

·      Tom Hanks endorsement

I have to admit this book was enjoyable. I liked the concept of husband-wife travelling across the US in a small single-engine propeller airplane (Cirrus SR 22). They had chronicled their journey spread across 3 years in The Atlantic posting regular updates and have compiled it all in this book. I also enjoyed the tidbits of flying/aviation interspersed throughout the book. Deb Fallows talks about how it is like to be a passenger in the cockpit and I like it.

Their travel is a 100,000-mile journey as the subtitle suggests but I do wish that the authors had visited more states – they visit only 29 towns in 19 states.

However, all these towns except for Columbus, Ohio are not heavily populated or can be called big cities – but they all have a common theme of resurrecting the fortunes of a town battered by 2008 crisis, technological disruption and bad perception. I noticed that there is a certain pattern how cities revive themselves –

·      Change the outlook of visitors by revamping the downtown

·      Create new scenic public places often by a waterfront or a river

·      Setup atleast few well-functioning innovative schools

·      Use the nearby research university/college to entice startups

·     Do not let the vicious national politics disrupt collaboration at the local level

Although the authors add one more intriguing parameter – the more craft breweries a town has, the more ambitious a city is. It is the most reliable sign of civic energy as per them.

If you were to ask me which towns I am tempted to visit after reading about them in this book – I would say Greenville, South Carolina and Burlington, Vermont.

If you do not have time to read the whole book - here are my brief impressions/remarkable things I found about each of the town listed in the book. Some towns were very interesting while for some I struggled to note even a single thing.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

è Morrell Company – acquired by Chinese firm

è Balloon-tech industry

è Large immigrant population

è Has the only large mall which people visit from nearby towns

Rapid City, South Dakota

è Pathways Spiritual Sanctuary – a meditation place started by a local

Holland, Michigan

è Sidewalks and streets have the snowmelt system inbuilt thus making it walkable in the winters too.

è A (Padnos family) recycling company backbone of the local economy

Burlington, Vermont

è Whitest state (95%) – authors spent some time talking about it

è Large immigrant population

è Good school

è Bernie Sanders’ involvement – “what is good about the city should be enjoyed by all”

Eastport, Maine

è Very low cost of living, poor population

è $100,000 buys you a 3 bedroom – 2 storyhouse

è Lots of sea-food

è Fish pens for farming fish! They grow salmon.

è Got to know of Equal Rights Amendment - a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of gender. It is still a proposal and yet to be enacted.

Greenville, South Carolina

è Most walkable downtown. Model for urban planners

è Good School focusing on STEAM i.e STEM + Arts

è Michelin, BMW plants

è Bridge for pedestrians overlooking the waterfront

St. Mary’s, Georgia

è Noticeable Dialect difference – Y’all v/s You guys.

è Gilman Paper company

è U.S Navy Base drives economic activity

Columbus, Mississippi

è Well below national per capita income

è Good school

è Golden Triangle Region – Columbus, Starkville, West Point

è Indian origin person helped

è TVA megasite

è Yokohama plant

Caddo Lake, Texas

è Beautiful lake threatened by invasive plant species

è Singer helped restore it via his fame

è Caddo Lake Research Institute

Columbus, Ohio

è 15^th largest city

è Financial district – with lots of financial companies located

è “Collaboration” is a buzz word in the local development

è Good school -industry collaboration

è Iconic public library saved by the public – passing of a tax bill

è Waypoint for Jerrie Mock – Jeanna Smith race (race between two female pilots to become the first to circumnavigate the world.) Waypoint means an intersection in the sky

Louisville, Kentucky

è Business model of “smaller scale – higher value – closer to customer – advanced manufacturing”

è GE’s incubator thrived here (led by Indian origin guy who later joined Starbucks)

Allentown, Pennsylvania

è Acquired a negative image through Billy Joel’s 1982 song “Allentown”

Well we’re living here in Allentown…

And they’re closing all the factories down.

è Mayor revived the town but was caught in a corruption scandal. Convicted in 2018

è Local newspaper The Morning Call pursued it. Shining example of local journalism

è Example of public subsidy for private investment (NIZ – Neighborhood Improvement Zone)

è Huge Minor League baseball stadium

è Amazon’s distribution center

è Parkette Gymnastics – where USA’s Olympic gymnasts train

Duluth, Minnesota

è Part of the Rust Belt (realized US is divided into different types of belts – Rust Belt, Corn Belt, Bible Belt, Sun Belt, Frost Belt, Snow Belt)

è Klapmeiers Brothers - aircraft industry

è Infamous 1920 lynching incident took place here

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

è City of Asylum – home to lots of people who sought asylum

Charleston, West Virginia

è Hillbilly

Guymon, Oklahoma

è Dustbowl region

Ajo, Arizona

è Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

è Mining town

è Home of now defunct Gilpin Airlines

è Isabella Greenway – a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt – was the most notable person

è She also started the Arizona Inn

San Bernardino, California

è Probably the only town that generates least optimism reading about it.

è Odd civic structure (Section 186) through which salaries are set by a formula which puts burden on the budget (70%) and elected officials cannot cut it down. In a town with median income of $35k – salaries in ~$62k being paid to responders who don’t even live in the town

è Local economy was built around Norton Air Base which closed in 1994

Riverside, California

è Home of California navel oranges

Redlands, California

è Esri – a big Geographic Information Systems (GIS) company HQ

è Probably visited this cause it’s the hometown of one of the authors

Fresno, California

è California High Speed rail construction starting here. Future tied with that project

è Came across as slightly better than San Bernardino (not a compliment!)

Winters, California

è Strategically located – hour to the south of wine country and 90mins west from San Fran

è Almonds

è Likeable town

Bend, Oregon

è Abundant natural beauty - Deschutes National Forest

è Local Timber and logger industry suffered from environmental regulations changes from the Clinton era

è Challenge of not having any research university nearby

Redmond and Prineville, Oregon

è Suffering from collapse of Big Timber industry

è Redmond is home to an aircraft company which builds light personal jet

è Prineville: Facebook and Apple have datacenters here because of low cost of electricity and property tax exemptions

è FB atleast donates to local community, arranges tours but Apple works behind a wall of secrecy

Chester, Montana

è Again surrounded by forests and natural beauty

è Buffalo Jump

American Prairie Reserve, Montana

è Buying land from private owners and taking it out of ranching is the strategy

è Migration paths of animals re-enabled to support diverse population of species, large and small

è Some locals perceive it as a “federal land grab”

Dodge City, Kansas

è Beef town

è Large diverse immigration population even though it is in one of the Reddest states.

Garden City and Spearville, Kansas

è Lots of Wind turbines as wind produced electricity doubled in the last 5 years

Erie, Pennsylvania

è Lake Erie

è Sizable portion of immigration population

è Presque Isle Bay