In 1971, the twin blade joined the single blade in the Gillette shaving razor. Then a pivot was added in 1977. Further a lubricating strip was attached. In the early 90s, springs were inserted to create the Sensor. The inclusion of microfins created the Excel. The addition of a third blade created the Mach3, battery power was supplemented to create M3 Power and last year Fusion came along with five blades.
Note that with every addition the value and the price increased too. Ditto for the original radio that became a two-in-one with the addition of a cassette player. A audio recorder was added, then a CD player, yet later a VCD player was inserted and then the DVD player too joined the ranks to create the multi-product sound system.
This practice of bringing together two things is called BISOCIATION. Arthur Koestler coined the term ‘bisociation’ in order to make a distinction between the routine skills of thinking on a single ‘plane’, as it were, and the creative act, which always operates on more than one plane.
Koestler stated that “every creative act involves bisociation, a process that brings together and combines previously unrelated ideas”. While association refers to previously established connections among ideas, bisociation involves making entirely new connections among ideas. Koestler’s definition addresses all forms of creativity, whether in design, art, science or humour.
To be better than we are we need to associate with bisociation in everything we do. That will ensure that we will be constantly innovating and approaching every routine situation with an open mind and a readiness to connect to the unconnected. It is pertinent to note that most successful bisociations have been rendered with already successful products. Hence even if something seems to be the best, it can always be better!
To BE BETTER we need to embrace bisociation…
Bringing two things together can result in innovation!
Regards
Pravin-da
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
POWERFUL?
A famous Zen story tells of the stonecutter who passed a wealthy merchant's house and craved to be powerful like him. To his great surprise, he transformed into one. Soon a high official passed by, and everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow before him. "How powerful that official is!" he thought. "I wish that I could be him!" Immediately his wish came true.
It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable. He looked up at the sun and wished to be the sun. However, when he became the sun, a huge black cloud obstructed him. He thought. "I wish that I could be powerful like the cloud!" Then he became the cloud only to be pushed around by the powerful wind. Immediately, he craved to be the wind! Then he became the wind.
After a while, he ran up against a huge, towering rock. He wished to be the rock and that’s what he became! Soon he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel and changing his very form. "What could be more powerful than I" he wondered. He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stonecutter!
So often, we rue our status and position. So often, we wish to be like someone else who seems to be better off then we are. Therefore, often, we ruin our peace of mind by cursing our state and status… all actually just a state of mind! We crave to jump from one situation to the next, one desire to the next, one point of view to the next, never resting content with how things really are, never grasping the whole.
The grass may seem greener on the other side -- until you get there. It's a matter of perspective. Satisfaction is a personal choice. Choose to green up your own grass rather than hopping that fence. We have to learn to celebrate who or what we are. When there is a way that we can better ourselves we must work for it and not just wish and pine for it.
It isn’t a bad thing to crave to BE BETTER
But it is bad taste to just envy and be bitter!
Regards
Pravin-da
It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable. He looked up at the sun and wished to be the sun. However, when he became the sun, a huge black cloud obstructed him. He thought. "I wish that I could be powerful like the cloud!" Then he became the cloud only to be pushed around by the powerful wind. Immediately, he craved to be the wind! Then he became the wind.
After a while, he ran up against a huge, towering rock. He wished to be the rock and that’s what he became! Soon he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel and changing his very form. "What could be more powerful than I" he wondered. He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stonecutter!
So often, we rue our status and position. So often, we wish to be like someone else who seems to be better off then we are. Therefore, often, we ruin our peace of mind by cursing our state and status… all actually just a state of mind! We crave to jump from one situation to the next, one desire to the next, one point of view to the next, never resting content with how things really are, never grasping the whole.
The grass may seem greener on the other side -- until you get there. It's a matter of perspective. Satisfaction is a personal choice. Choose to green up your own grass rather than hopping that fence. We have to learn to celebrate who or what we are. When there is a way that we can better ourselves we must work for it and not just wish and pine for it.
It isn’t a bad thing to crave to BE BETTER
But it is bad taste to just envy and be bitter!
Regards
Pravin-da
Monday, January 14, 2008
DEFEATING EVEREST
"We didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest… even using oxygen as we were, if we did get to the top, we weren't at all sure whether we wouldn't drop dead." – Sir Edmund Hillary
Beekeeper, Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, did not drop dead at the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, when they set foot on the highest point on earth. It took 32 years of failures for dedicated climbers to reach the top of Mount Everest, a peak scaled so often now it hardly makes the newspaper headlines! At over 29,000 feet of altitude, snow never melts atop Mount Everest… winds at the summit reach 200 miles per hour… overall a very difficult challenge!
George Leigh-Mallory is first recorded as attempting the climb in 1921. On his third try, in 1924, he disappeared into the mist, never to be seen again. It is believed that he reached the top but slipped and did not live to tell his tale. The mountain had won. However, friends of Mallory one day gazed upon a large picture of Mount Everest and declared, “Mr. Everest, you defeated us once. You defeated us twice. You defeated us three times. But, Mr. Everest, we shall some day defeat you because you can’t get any bigger – and we can!”
Eight more attempts were made on the mountain resulting in eight more failures. Finally, Hillary and Tenzing defeated Everest. Since them, over 1,200 men and women from 63 nations have reached the summit.
Actually, failure comes only after we have given up. If the odds of winning are slim to none, they might be worth taking. Surely, we can get bigger and be better – better in ability; better in experience; better in wisdom; better in faith. Hillary, who passed away on 11 January 2008, remains a shining example of courage and endurance! Besides mountaineering, Hillary dedicated his life to environmental causes and to humanitarian efforts for the Nepalese people.
Hillary showed us how to blunt failure’s knife …
"BE BETTER" is the way to be, to justify our life …
Regards
Pravin
Beekeeper, Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, did not drop dead at the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, when they set foot on the highest point on earth. It took 32 years of failures for dedicated climbers to reach the top of Mount Everest, a peak scaled so often now it hardly makes the newspaper headlines! At over 29,000 feet of altitude, snow never melts atop Mount Everest… winds at the summit reach 200 miles per hour… overall a very difficult challenge!
George Leigh-Mallory is first recorded as attempting the climb in 1921. On his third try, in 1924, he disappeared into the mist, never to be seen again. It is believed that he reached the top but slipped and did not live to tell his tale. The mountain had won. However, friends of Mallory one day gazed upon a large picture of Mount Everest and declared, “Mr. Everest, you defeated us once. You defeated us twice. You defeated us three times. But, Mr. Everest, we shall some day defeat you because you can’t get any bigger – and we can!”
Eight more attempts were made on the mountain resulting in eight more failures. Finally, Hillary and Tenzing defeated Everest. Since them, over 1,200 men and women from 63 nations have reached the summit.
Actually, failure comes only after we have given up. If the odds of winning are slim to none, they might be worth taking. Surely, we can get bigger and be better – better in ability; better in experience; better in wisdom; better in faith. Hillary, who passed away on 11 January 2008, remains a shining example of courage and endurance! Besides mountaineering, Hillary dedicated his life to environmental causes and to humanitarian efforts for the Nepalese people.
Hillary showed us how to blunt failure’s knife …
"BE BETTER" is the way to be, to justify our life …
Regards
Pravin
Monday, January 7, 2008
NO SHORTCUTS
Every visitor to Pedro’s college was treated to the spectacle of his ability to jump over ten steps from the mid-landing of the staircase to the landing below. However, one visitor was not amused. He was an athlete and sought to prove that Pedro’s feat was ordinary.
Pedro pleaded with him not to try it out. It was not prudent for a winner athlete to consider an ordinary person’s feat as a challenge. But the athlete would have none of it. He went up to the mid landing and jumped off only to fall spread-eagled on to the last three steps.
Pedro helped him to his feet and told him an enduring lesson. Pedro had initially started jumping off the fourth step. After a few days he moved to the next step. One step at a time over four months, he was able to develop the skill of jumping from the tenth step. Pedro asked the athlete, “why did you go straight to the tenth step?”
Things are not always as easy as they seem. And there are no guaranteed short cuts to acquiring the abilities of those who make it seem easy. We can cover ground faster by putting in more effort and following a well planned process. But things will not happen immediately even if we believe that we are better equipped than the one who can do it. Getting better is a process that requires time, thought and most importantly confidence that is not clouded by conceit.
To ‘BE BETTER’ take one step at each instance…
There are no real shortcuts to cover the distance!
Regards
Pravin
Pedro pleaded with him not to try it out. It was not prudent for a winner athlete to consider an ordinary person’s feat as a challenge. But the athlete would have none of it. He went up to the mid landing and jumped off only to fall spread-eagled on to the last three steps.
Pedro helped him to his feet and told him an enduring lesson. Pedro had initially started jumping off the fourth step. After a few days he moved to the next step. One step at a time over four months, he was able to develop the skill of jumping from the tenth step. Pedro asked the athlete, “why did you go straight to the tenth step?”
Things are not always as easy as they seem. And there are no guaranteed short cuts to acquiring the abilities of those who make it seem easy. We can cover ground faster by putting in more effort and following a well planned process. But things will not happen immediately even if we believe that we are better equipped than the one who can do it. Getting better is a process that requires time, thought and most importantly confidence that is not clouded by conceit.
To ‘BE BETTER’ take one step at each instance…
There are no real shortcuts to cover the distance!
Regards
Pravin
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
LET GO OF THE PAST (31dec07)
Today is the last day of the calendar year. For many it is a reason to celebrate the year that was. Some use it as an occasion to evaluate their journey of events. While this can be a very good thing to do, quite often, we tend to look back more out of being judgemental than developmental. We get caught in the passionate perceptions of our past rather than learn the lessons from our experience.
My artist friend, Hanuman Kambli illustrated the need for the appropriate approach towards looking back to the days that have gone by. He said that "the past should be the fertiliser to be used for nurturing further growth, but alas it is used like a chewing gum that is chewed on even when it loses it taste!" The many dimensions of our past experience should be a guide to our future… they should not be the deadweight that weighs us down and prevents our progress.
I like to state during my unlearning seminars that while the past tells us where we have come from, it does not decide where we will go. An impressive past does not guarantee a positive future and a not-so-impressive past does not condemn us to continued mediocrity. We need to hold on to only the valid lessons and cast ourselves in a fresh attitude and approach towards the immediate present and the desired future.
Let's use the metaphor of our life as a ship. The past is a dimension like the harbour we sailed from. The present is a dimension like the waters we ride. The future is a dimension that beckons akin to a lighthouse. The connection between these three dimensions decides our personality. However, there is nothing really that can be called the end of a year. But surely, there can be a beginning to take off on a new year in our lives… every day… every moment… if we only "develop new dimensions"!
Let go of the past and the moments old,
Cast yourself in a brand new mould!
Get set to rise on newer horizons
Let's "develop new dimensions"!!
My artist friend, Hanuman Kambli illustrated the need for the appropriate approach towards looking back to the days that have gone by. He said that "the past should be the fertiliser to be used for nurturing further growth, but alas it is used like a chewing gum that is chewed on even when it loses it taste!" The many dimensions of our past experience should be a guide to our future… they should not be the deadweight that weighs us down and prevents our progress.
I like to state during my unlearning seminars that while the past tells us where we have come from, it does not decide where we will go. An impressive past does not guarantee a positive future and a not-so-impressive past does not condemn us to continued mediocrity. We need to hold on to only the valid lessons and cast ourselves in a fresh attitude and approach towards the immediate present and the desired future.
Let's use the metaphor of our life as a ship. The past is a dimension like the harbour we sailed from. The present is a dimension like the waters we ride. The future is a dimension that beckons akin to a lighthouse. The connection between these three dimensions decides our personality. However, there is nothing really that can be called the end of a year. But surely, there can be a beginning to take off on a new year in our lives… every day… every moment… if we only "develop new dimensions"!
Let go of the past and the moments old,
Cast yourself in a brand new mould!
Get set to rise on newer horizons
Let's "develop new dimensions"!!
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