Corporate Millions

As a kid learning math I am trying to remember when I first encountered the concept of a million. Seems like many moons ago. I must have been in middle school when a friend of the family knowing my proclivity for math handed me a book written by some Russian professors (translated to English).

It was a book of curious math problems and explained concepts like large numbers in some detail. I think that may have been my introduction to appreciating a number like a million. One followed by six zeroes.

As in the distance between earth and our moon is a quarter of that. In miles. A million heart beats is a lifetime of 9 days since a human heart beats at around 115,000 of them each day. But this number pales when you start discussing capitalism.

Recently in the news...

1. Elon Musk, the famous entrepreneur was fined $20M for blabbing about taking Tesla private when in fact it was not so.

2. Facebook was hacked. 50M accounts were compromised. Oh well that is only 2% of their user base. Who cares?

3. Apple became the first company to be valued at a trillion USD. That is a million million. Not bad for selling a computer in a pocket. A giant retailer aptly called Amazon is a close second.

Valuations are a mystery. They are not real. They are the collective perception of average humans influenced by the cult leader. You pick your cult. There are millions of them around.

Comments

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

A few good books

On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...

Brown Motion

Search This Blog