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Dune

February 24, 2012February 4, 2017 Prasad Ajinkya1 Comment

This is by far one of my favorite sci-fi novel series. I have read Asimov, but Frank Herbert (and his son in later parts) have really put together an interesting universe with Dune. If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend that you read the entire series.

It was with great anticipation that I sat down to see the movie. Having played both the games (which did not do the series justice), I had some sparing memories of the movie during my childhood. Enough to know that Paul was played by Kyle MacLachlan, the movie had Sting as one of the characters and the fremen had cobalt blue eyes :)

The actual movie as all movies based on books go, was a big disappointment. The movie has been made in 1984 (ominous no?) so I did not expect much in terms of special effects. However the richness of the sets and the good print of the movie had me astounded. It was even a pleasant surprise to see a young Patrick Stewart play the very likeable Gurney Halleck, and a very young Sean Young (no pun intended!) play Chani.

Perhaps the plots and plots within plots were too much for the movie to capture, or perhaps the director was trying to save his ass post production, I do not know what went wrong with the movie, however the movie lacked that certain impact! Paul fails to impress and the Baron who is supposed to be the devil incarnate seems to be a flying lunatic homosexual at the worst :)

Really not worth a movie of 2.5 hours. Huge plots such as the Kwisatch Haderach, the Bene Geserit, the Voice, and Paul’s struggle against the inevitable Jihad are omitted. The original movie was apparently 4 hours, and it was excised to fit the 2 hour length by the producers. A shame, because there was no lengthy directors cut available then. A movie only to be remembered the fans of the book.

Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur

February 23, 2012February 4, 2017 Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

While playing Skyrim, I found out that there is a very active community on Reddit. It’s a good source of laughter and frustration that players share while playing the game. One fine day, I noticed that the Skyrim Reddit was sporting an Ad … of Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur.

Another RPG. Hmmm, tell me something new!

Well, what grabbed my attention was that the game was the creation of Todd McFarlane, the creator of the hit cartoon character Spawn. Add to that the game sports Ken Rolston as its executive designer, the one who is famous for The Elder Scrolls series. Initially, I made the mistake of thinking that the game is going to be an MMORPG, pitting itself directly against leaders such as World of Warcraft and the fast catching up series, Rift.

Normally, I would ignore such games, however the superb online marketing that the good folks from Reckoning were doing ensured that I try out the demo of the game. A massive 2.8 GB download of the demo later, I started playing this game.

Immediate things to note is that Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur is made by Big Huge Games (also the creators of Dungeon Siege III). A lot of the game play and cut scenes seemed a mix of Mass Effect series (also an EA title) and DS3 (which flopped due to bad controls). A lot of artwork and creatives seem to be simply lifted and reused from these titles.

Having said that, the demo was a good experience. The story was riveting (good lore!), game play wasn’t cumbersome (I could easily shift from melee fighting to spell casting) and more importantly, I was having fun playing the game (2 runs so far and about to start my 3rd!). One good thing about EA titles is that they have differential pricing, so the game priced for USD 59 in the US is available for a cool INR 1000 in India. Finally a company which values India as a definite revenue generating segment!! Kudos EA, my congrats to you :-)

Rule by Fear

February 21, 2012May 6, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

There’s an interesting article available at HBR on Managerial Tyranny. CEOs and executives since long have been utilizing this approach to achieve spectacular growth rates. This is even more true when the manager is expected to show quarter on quarter results. Out goes the nice guy approach and in comes the tyrant – a whip in one hand and measurable metrics in the other.

The Rule by Fear has been used in popular firms … everybody praises Steve Jobs on his design sense, but how many of them would advocate his iron fist approach during the hey days of Apple? Did you forget Jack Welch … he wasn’t called Neutron Jack without any reason.

So when should one crack the whip? Well, if your team is aware of the end outcomes and shares your desires to reach those outcomes. Then the means of cracking the whip and acting the tyrant is justified … until those goals are achieved.

Personally, I think that this approach can only be used to achieve results in the short term. Work culture in India at least is still dependant a lot on personal equations. If the team does not share the passion, then tyranny could be the main reason why they will leave the firm – this brings to mind the quote

You do not leave the job, you leave your boss

I wonder if this can be made sustainable?

Sex in Advertising

February 20, 2012June 4, 2017 Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

If you have seen the latest GoDaddy Ads, then you will understand what I am talking about. I had posted this great Ad from BMW which uses sex but pulls it off quite nicely. Having said that, now take a look at the GoDaddy Ads –

How the massage, and the masseuse stripping off to bear the GoDaddy logo really brings out their hosting plans and domain registry services is a mystery to me. What is interesting to note is that the ads typically leave off by saying to view more go to their site. On checking out the full ads, the advertisement goes on to talk about the different features of the GoDaddy offerings.

Effectively, the ads that were shown on television were simply to generate traffic on their site. Again an example of one media relying on another media for it’s business. This really does not bode well with me (despite being a GoDaddy customer for the past 4 years now). This traffic is also assuming that people want to view more of Danica or GoDaddy.

I wonder if some data were obtained on their traffic and conversion data post after the campaign launched. I’d wager that the traffic would increase, but the conversion rate would go down.

What do you good folks think?

On Second thoughts

Since the video in the advertisement keeps changing, I am forced to keep updating this post. Since then, several such ads have been shown. There is a Danica and Shower ad as well, search on YouTube and you will find it.

It would seem that the marketing team at GoDaddy has found some correlation between fans of Danica Patrick, young teenagers and customers who buy website domains. Whereas the ads promise further titillation on the website. There might even be a good correlation.

Don’t hire dogs

February 19, 2012May 6, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya6 Comments

Dog’s are a man’s best friend. They are considered as faithful, loyal and will always be there to lift you up. A dog will fetch things for you and do silly tricks such as sit, roll over, etc.

In different companies, there is one such breed of employees. Don’t get me wrong, I am not objectifying people, and this is an analogy, if anything. So this breed of employees … they behave in the exact manner like dogs.

They are generally taken from the street or from the wild, they do not have any formal skill set with them. It’s probably because of this reason that they are extremely loyal to the company. They are willing to go the extra distance and spend more time in the office working unrealistic deadlines and striving to satisfy their masters.

Obviously, who would want to say no to such employees! Right?

Well, wrong!! Change is the requirement of all organizations, especially the small ones and the ones which are growing at a fast pace. The problem now magnifies is because you can’t teach an old dog new tricks (yes, I wanted to work this cliché into this post!!). Any organization that is growing at a fast pace (60% – 100% growth YoY) would require such a huge influx of talent, that the loyal dog would now be forced to question his erstwhile unquestionable value in the company.

This is the risk, and it’s a huge one. Why is it a risk? Because at some point in the founder’s life, this loyal employee has done a favor and worked in ridiculous conditions. Now that the dog is tired and cannot do anything new, it has become a liability for the organization. Not only does it sadden the person, but the organization cannot put this figurative dog to sleep.

So if you are an entrepreneur or about to start your firm, do yourself a favor and do not hire dogs.

Addendum

Arjun Bakshi writes –

This phenomenon is not restricted to start-ups:-) Most “Big” organisations are not very different.
I feel HR / Organisations are lazy and want the easy way out. Have a template of qualifications and experience required to hire, short-list such people thru employee referrals and employment consultants and then hire them.
Why take the risk to hire people outside the template and take efforts on them?
In case you follow sports, the recent example of Jeremy Lin is a very good example of the malaise which also exists in our hiring practices. I am sending just one of the millions of articles on him. I think, Malcolm Gladwell also has a few artcles on a similar theme.