What Motivates People?

Motivation is an important phenomenon in Administration and in  Humanistic Psychology. In administration, it helps in better job designing for employees leading to increase in production whereas in Psychology it helps in understanding human behaviour.

People tend to make larger-than-life decisions in their life. Some of these decisions fail miserably, others help people attain new heights. What motivates them to take the big step? Well. I am not the first one to ponder about it. Abraham Maslow has analysed it threadbare in his famous hierarchy of needs theory. There have been many refinements, most noticeably by Frederick Herzberg in his two-factor theory. Maslow said human needs follow a hierarchy from lower order needs to higher order needs; physical, security, social, esteem and self-actualisation needs, in that order. While Herzberg said, the motivating factors are different from demotivating (hygiene) factors. That is, he classified Maslow's lower order needs into Hygiene Factors and higher order needs into Motivators. While their theories are enticing, I find them incomplete and too simplistic.
I believe, they tremendously undermined the complex nature of motivation in human beings. I would propose my modification as the following:

1. We tend to take the bigger step when we are more-or-less assured of the possibility of the parity being restored in case of failure. That is, we tend to evaluate the possibility of rewards in case of success and possibility of damages in case of failure. If we find, it is not too difficult to go back to where we began from, we generally take the plunge. I call it the 'Principle of Retrospective Parity'.

2. There are exceptions to this phenomenon. Some extremely entrepreneurial people don't adhere to this principle. They simply take the plunge - come what may. Generally, they are driven by the possibility of much greater rewards outweighing the costs involved. I call it the Principle of Sanguinity.

So to restate Maslow in context of above two principles,

If human beings are reasonably satisfied with their current level of lower order needs, they will be ready to temporarily abandon them in pursuit of higher order needs, when they are almost sure that they can restore the lower needs to their previous level of existence.

Just a thought. How appealing is it?

Update:
I later found out it that it is somewhat similar to what Victor Vroom proposed in his Expectancy theory. In this theory, he proposed:

Valence = Expectancy x Instrumentality

Which basically means that people are motivated to perform a task when they believe it will lead to positive rewards. Possibility of such rewards coming their way is an important part of that consideration.
But as you might see, Vroom's theory doesn't compare itself with need based theory]ies of Maslow and Herzberg.

Did You Know? BATA and few others..

Okay, this is just an FYI post. Some of the facts presented here may surprise you. But they are, as I mentioned, facts. More facts will be added as I find them out. Let's begin:

1. Bata Shoes is not an Indian/Asian company. It is a large, family owned shoe company based in Bermuda but currently headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.

2. Adidas and Reebok are not competitors. They merged way back in 2006 when Adidas acquired Reebok for about $12 bn.

Diplomacy gone wrong?

"We have taken up the matter with Indian minister for sports.", said Pakistan sports minister. The IPL snub to Pakistani players has turned into a huge diplomatic issue. Depending on who you ask, most Pakistani elite are calling for cutting off sporting ties with India. Most people in India don't care much about the issue but for omnipresent Indian media and elite sportsmen! They feel Pakistanis deserved better. Clearly, BCCI and IPL completely failed at assessing the impact of the snub they gave to Pakistani players.

Now let us put this in context. IPL is a private league run by a private organization, BCCI. Third edition of IPL is expected to generate revenue of 800 Crores. People who own IPL teams are sophisticated businessmen and businesswomen. They prefer making decisions that make business sense. This one, to ignore members of world T20 champion team Pakistan for their teams, makes perfect sense. After all, relations between India and Pakistan haven't been the healthiest in past one and half year. Any new terror strikes against India can create even more tension between these two south Asian nuclear armed nations. Who would guarantee Visas to Pakistani players to play in the IPL if all hell were to break loose? Which businessmen would invest their money for such players whose availability is not even                 guaranteed? Not Vijay Mallya and Mukesh Ambani, for sure.                                                   

Where it gets interesting though, is the fact that, none of the franchises bid for any of the Pakistani player at all. And it all started looking suspicious. People assumed that franchises might have, by covert consensus, decided not to bid for any Pakistani player. Media picked up the issue and it became one of gigantic proportions.

I also have my version of speculation. Franchises asked IPL to advise them on bidding for Pakistani players regarding logistical issues they foresaw. IPL warned them against bidding for these players for Visa and security issues. Franchises decided to tow IPL line.

Doesn't sound too fishy to me. But they failed to present it well. As many "elite" later suggested, IPL could easily have disqualified Pakistani players citing above reasons and depict themselves as transparent in this regard. Lalit Modi's effigies would still have been burnt in Lahore, but for a different reason and MEA, Sports Ministry, BCCI and IPL would not have had to issue clarifications.

Cleary, India lost some brownie points on diplomacy!

Let me know your thoughts in comments section.

Sid and 3 Idiots

..all four of them teach us at least one common thing. Listen to your heart while choosing your profession. Siddhartha (Ranbir kapoor) in Wake Up Sid is not happy to take over reigns of a successful business established by his father (Anupam Kher) and Farhan (Madhvan) in 3 Idiots wants to be a wildlife photographer but he is studying engineering! They try the profession advocated by their parents and find themselves in miserable state. They don't enjoy it at all. Sid runs away from Dad's office in a week and Farhan consistently ranks last in his class.  Ultimately they listen to their hearts and lead a happy life (Bollywood, remember! But that's not the point.).

So choose early and choose wisely. After all, It's YOUR life.

Welcome 2010

The year in which terrorism was eradicated from India.

The year in which India saw tremendous prosperity across all sections of society.

The year in which corruption was brought to abyss.

The year in which Indian infrastructure development scaled new heights.

The year which defined the direction in which my career took off.

The year that took all of us towards light from darkness!

This is how I would want to remember The New Year. Welcome 2010!

Mahabharat

Indian epic 'Mahabharat' is too complete to be real. It has action, romance, thrill, violence and complete guidance on human behavior!

Nostalgia

Why does one feel nostalgic?

Would it still be true if one's next moment is always better than the previous one? Would one still remember the old ones and feel... nostalgic?

I guess not.

So next time you feel nostalgic, try to make your next moment better. You will feel happy again. :)

Cheers !

Love Aaj Kal : Review

Short : Good movie. Excellent screenplay, editing and direction. Old story. Fun filled and exhilarating. Good ROI :)

Long :The movie depicts two facets of love, both portrayed by Saif. 'Kal' ka love, is typical old movie ishtyle love which surprises with its clear headed direction. It is an old story portrayed differently and still wins hearts.

'Aaj' ka love is equally breathtaking. Saif and Deepika do justice to their roles though there was scope for improvement. Direction, screenplay and editing cover up for it. In the end, you think you know what's gonna happen but then it suddenly changes track and makes you say, Wow! In short, it is a fun filled joy-ride. Amazing locations in London, San Francisco and specially Delhi, make you wonder how beautiful this world is!

Go watch it. It is definitely worth the money. :)

Night out for a valid reason..

There is no purpose for this post. I just felt like I should keep writing. It is what makes me happy. I have not written for a few months now.

Coming to the title of the post, last night was spent coding for the heck of it. It was an application based on Yahoo! Mail APIs. Well! I could not finish on the same high spirit as I had started with. Still, it was worth the effort. 

Moreover, it brought back the old memories of night outs  for no particular productive reasons at college. 

Content. Happy. Living Again.

Hopefully I will be back to writing frequently again!

Cricket and India !!!

Give me one way to prove Indians are mad about cricket.
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When girls on 'roadies' can answer a question which goes like this:

Translate this Hindi phrase - लंब दंड गोल पिंड धर पकड़ प्रतियोगिता

Why 'Family' tv soaps are not good to watch !

I am writing this while I am 'actually' watching: ' Saloni - Saat Pheron ka Safar ' . I think Indian television has got it all wrong. They always depict a person in ideal state - be it villain or the hero (being agnostic to the sex). They must come closer to reality. Indian mass is a very confused lot. Generally they never hate or love other person to the extreme. They are always objective. They love or hate people on issues. It's not like a 'saas' thinking all twenty four hours devising a plan to ruin her 'bahu's' married life.

I can't stop myself from hating this particular moment in the serial - Saloni is the most devoted wife on Indian television. She has stood all tests inflicted on her (by her family members - not surprising, huh). The husband is suffering from a deadly physical ailment (say 'brain tumour
or 'blood cancer' - two most abused diseases on Indian television and cinema - Indian kid knows (right or wrong!) that these can't be cured even before it is born.) Now comes the bummer. Saloni announces based on her trust and devotion that she will leave no stone unturned in winning her husband's life back.

I don't know what will be the fate of poor husband. But I definitely hate this extreme. We love reality shows !

Change... I am waiting.

Rahul Does a Rang De Basanti..

When I watched Rang De Basanti, I felt that the only unrealistic part of the film was the climax where army opens fire on five friends without trying to catch them alive. But yesterday's incident in Mumbai, where Mumbai Police didn't even try to catch the 'Hijacker' Rahul Raj from Bihar; has proved me wrong. From the video footages telecasted on TV, it appears as if Rahul was too scared already and he only fired one or two rounds in the air. Was police scared that the boy would kill the GREAT Raj Thackery.

Police has yet again left many questions unanswered.

damn !

Cricket Again...hilarious article

Ganguly can have his Kolkata mansion, 48 bedrooms in the old family home, 32 cars, many nicknames (Dada, Lord Snooty, Prince of Kolkata, Bengal Tiger, Maharaja), road named after him (Sourav Ganguly Avenue), restaurant chain (Sourav's), odd vegetarian habits (only on Tuesdays and Saturdays), red Mercedes convertibles, billions of rupees, 111 Tests and 7000-odd runs, and record as India's most successful Test captain.

His biggest accomplishment has been getting up the noses of a team which succeeded in getting up the noses of everyone else — Australia.

This is the final paragraph of an Hilarious/awesome/stupid (choose the word after reading it) article published by 'The Age'  - an australian newspaper. But I found the last two lines very very hilarious indeed specially after going through the whole article. ha ha ha....

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/cricket/hero-or-villain-ganguly-made-his-mark/2008/10/18/1223750407510.html?page=1

Another article on Sachin Tendulkar... tells you how much 'Australians' respects champions in sports and also gives you an Australian perception (racist) of INDIA (which I think is really rude.)

a snapshot ..

 Indians spend billions of dollars every year trying to lighten their skins. India knows that its film stars have not crossed cultural lines. Booker Prize winners cannot inspire a nation half as well as the sight of a demonstrably brown boy repeatedly cracking feared bowling around.

But is a very interesting read...

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/10/16/1223750232341.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Enjoy the aussi way of telling things :D :D !

Notes From Chinnaswamy

My observations from the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore: (I watched third day's play of first test match between India vs Australia LIVE at the stadium)

Logistics...

0. Getting on the spot tickets for one day of a test match in Bangalore even on a weekend was not at all difficult. You only need to reach stadium two and a half hours earlier and stand in a queue. Everything else flows smoothly.

1. I loved the first sight of the ground. Such a beauty! But my idea of cricket grounds was hit big time. C'mon! Even I can hit a four (or a six for that matter) on Chinnaswamy. Ground did not at all seem too big.

2. There was a decent arrangement of chairs in the stand. Refreshments were available just outside the stand on a little highr than normal price. Whole stadium is covered for spectators so one need not carry an umbrella even if ones' Yahoo! Weather widget predicts thunderstorms.

Now coming to pre-match scenario..

3 . One hour before the start of play, Gary Kirsten arrives into the stadium with MOST of the team members. They divided themselves in two groups and played a rugby-like game (part where players fall over each other- was missing) . Senior players other than Sachin were least bothered to get the ball and score a goal for their team. Dhoni and Bhajji were the most active players. Others were just making up the numbers.

4. Next, all of them formed a circle. Gary took the center and started exercising. Players tried to follow him. But sad part is that they were never in sync even while doing the exercises.

5. A peek into pre-match batting practice time: Sachin (1-2 minutes), Dravid (2-4 minutes), Saurav (5 minutes), Laxman (3-4 minutes), Sehwag (3-4 minutes), Gambhir (5-7 minutes)........HARBHAJAN (15-20 minutes). NOT surprisingly Harbhajan ended up as the highest scorer of the day (with a half century). After all, practice makes a man perfect :D.

Cricket :) ....the game begins...

6. If you are not sitting in the stands right in front of the pitch, you won't be able to guess the line of the delievery :( , which happened with us. You also struggle to notice if somebody gets out.

7. And the worst part is that, they don't show replay for dismissals even on that large electronic screen. They do show replays for a few select delieveries (which don't raise a umpiring error concern) .

8. Harbhajan was definitely the best batsmen on that day. Everybody else struggled more than him. Dravid edged more than ten delieveries and Ganguly was very uncomfotable at crease. Sachin looked good but did not last long.

9. It also drizzled for some time and play was held up. Got bored during the break. But Harbhajan made sure we got the worth of our money. He played some exquisite strokes all around the ground.

summing it up...

10. It was a great experience for a cricket addict such as me. I loved every part of it.

I Love media :D

Just a few months back, when India and Australia were giving each other some really hard time ..media was all over it, debating what does the 'right spirit of game' mean. Most of them came out with the conclusion that they should limit themselves to exchanging prolonged stares and nothing more than that, they should not claim contentious catches etc etc.

Now when India followed the 'ICC Guidelines' ...they were taken aback. They wanted some news. Whole seven hours of play went by and no news of exchange of words ! They also need something for telecasting till next day :P. Few of them came up with stupid headlines which marked their frustration more than anything else.

"From fierce to antiseptic cricket' claimed one news channel.

My Comment to the editor of that headline: Go get a life..dude !

Another Serial Blasts in Delhi !

They are seriously testing our patience ! Another serial blasts in the national capital...and we are still helpless ! Delhi is under attack. We must retaliate. Ruin the culprits. Destroy the unholy neighbour !

Save my India

Protests in Jammu, violence in Kashmir, Floods in Bihar, Land row in Bengal, Communal violence in Orissa......Please save my country from devastation.

Live Your Dream - Rock On!

I usually read movie reviews in TOI. I was already impressed with the four star rating the movie got there. Under the positive frame of mind, I went to watch it yesterday and simply loved it. It's a refreshingly different story for a bollywood flick. Farhan Akhtar's 'Dosti' touch made the movie one of the best in recent times. Farhan Akhtar played each role with perfection be it actor as the lead, singer or pseudo director. Hats off to you man !


First half of the movie builds the story revolving around a music band portraying their happier times. It can be slightly long for those who don't sit there with a positive frame of mind. Otherwise it's a good first half which doesn't loose focus. Second half displaying the story of reunion of the band for their last concert together (as one of them was dying). And their last concert was surely something!! Climax could not have been better. They never lamented over death of their beloved band mate unnecessary as is portrayed in all other hindi flicks. It was one of the best endings of a bollywood flick dealing with an emotional story ever.

Now summarising why I loved the movie:

(1) Absolutely original story at least for bollywood alone.

(2) Wonderful music - the best part of the movie. You will love the magic of the music of 'MAGIK'. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, you are adorable.

(3) Farhan Akhtar is best when handling scripts based on friendship. He is definitely upto the task. Wonderful execution!

(4) I loved the ending. I hope you also will find it different and good.

(5) Farhan Akhtar outclassed even Arjun Rampal in acting department and was equally good at singing too. Kudos to the multi-talented man !

(6) A different way of taking you to flashback. I liked the change.

(7) Movie makes you feel good about bollywood. It gives you a sense that bollywood has come of age.

(8) Movie gives you a wonderful message to live your dreams, always pursue your dreams. So true ! You will definitely relate it with yourself if you didn't pursue yours.

(9) Movie is simply good!

My Ratings: 3.50/5 (deducting 0.50 point because I didn't find the reason for the split of the band too adequate.)

Random Notes

* Pizza hut in Bangalore (Specifically in Koramangala) does not deliver at home when it's raining. Now it's pretty obvious that they are not handling a very common use case. (educate me if it's true worldwide or at least Bangalore-wide).

* India has clinched its first ever ODI series win in sri lanka against sri lanka. Thanks Mahi, Raina and Zaheer for making us proud.

* Living a day from the year 2050, when you don't have water at your home to even go shi*****, is real pain. Trust me.

* Eating dinner out has started becoming a pain. Don't feel like getting up and go. Time to set up the kitchen!

* Haven't met college friends other then flat mates in a long time now. Need to visit places soon.

* Grid computing is new to me. Cluster set-up is totally alien. If you are the same, visit http://hadoop.apache.org/core/docs/r0.17.1/cluster_setup.html to know about one of the best open source grid software available today.

* Guru of web-services? Teach me how to use curl. Really need to learn using it fast.

* shopping, shopping, shopping...singing for months. Nobody's listening.

* watched 'Bachna ae Haseeno' at PVR last weekend. Watch it on DVD. My ratings : 2.75 / 5

* Can't remember anything else now. Will update the post soon.

Bollywood may die !

Nowadays every second movie produced by bollywood is a remake of some hollywood blockbuster! And Hollywood produces less than half the number of movies poduced by bollywood. So when, bollywood exhausts all 'Different' imported ideas...they basically run out of scripts to build their movies. And on that day world would see death of an empire. :D

PS: thought triggered by a status message which said "Ugly and pagli is a pathetic remake of 'My Sassy Girl".