Musings. Et Al. - Archive
Thoughts Archive for Amit Gawande
You tend to remember the things that went wrong, that were not easy to carry out the first time around. With experience, such failures, such roadblocks tend to grow on you, and mar one’s productivity, one’s creativity.
Experience can make you believe that nothing is easy.
My daughter servers me a dish of Play-Doh breakfast every now and then. Got served some colourful animal cookies today.
A great article on a recent event in cricket →
For all the ball-tampering madness, we can also see a team both out of touch and out of favour, and a vice-captain a million miles away from understanding what the game of cricket truly means to millions of people around the world.
I have realised there’s a block worse than writer’s block - a reader’s block. It leaves your mind numb and leads to former. Sigh.
Most tech bloggers often dislike Apple because they tend to stay focused on a theme in an event. They just narrate their story, their perspective of the market they plan to talk about. Nothing more. That provides no juicy sound bytes.
Exactly the reason I just didn’t follow today’s event. Apple wanted it to be low key, there were clear indications.
They had informed they specifically want to talk about their, if I may, foray in education. I can’t really relate to the use case, so I can’t appreciate the worth of what they are going to offer.
Did they deliver? Will what they announced help them succeed in the education market? I will leave the judgement to commentators smarter than me.
But did they talk about anything else? About anything not part of the announced theme? Of course, not. Tech bloggers tend to hate Apple for that.
An alarming and distressing thread →
Want to freak yourself out? I'm gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it
This is crazy, of course they can accurately build a profile of you out of this.
I finally watched Wonder Woman & I must say I had too high expectations for this. And this didn’t deliver. Too many plot holes, too much brushing off. As if the makers too were hesitant to give their 100%.
Was it better than other DC movies? Sure. But it’s too low a bar.
Recent drama, being termed #SandpaperGate, around Australian cricketers admited to tampering with the ball has raised so many questions. “We play our cricket _hard but fair_“ has been a pretty common response every time fingers have been pointed at Australian cricketers. And I sided with them more often than not. It is ok to wear aggression on your sleeves —that is till you plain start cheating. All because you think you need to, you have to win. That just doesn’t make any sense.
This win-at-all-cost approach is risky — once you start walking down this path, you eventually lose the sight of what the game is all about. “Spirit of the game” then are just some hollow words you utter every now and then to keep yourself entertained.
As has been so rightly said by Sambit Bal - “this is Australia’s moment of truth”.
It was desperation, Smith said, that drove them to this. But this was about saving a match, not lives. How far elite sportsmen stretch their bodies and mind in search of victory forms part of sports' intrinsic appeal, but the attendant danger of the win-at-all-costs approach is that it thins the line between ultra-competitiveness and sharp practice.
I still do not understand what desperation Smith was talking about. The series was level 1-1. Australia still has one of the best new ball attacks there is. They have been playing some good cricket in recent times. So what’s there to be so desperate towards a win?
And how stupid was this “leadership group” to think and agree on such brainfart, given there are cameras all around? I really doubt these players are this naive.
