One of the side-conversations in Delhi last week was about why people don’t engage with data enough. I wanted to reframe the question and generalize it. It is not just about data or numbers. The question I want to ask is why people don’t engage with knowledge enough? I wrote a blog on it a while ago: Here is the data! Show me the action.
I went to the washroom after this discussion and there was a small aha moment there. (No, not what you think)
This chart was fixed in front of every urinal.
So, one sees this chart; applies it to his own observations; comes out of the washroom and there is an opportunity to quickly take action. I drank water — almost every time I went to the washroom. Talk about great ideas being generated in a washroom. Toilet Think Tank. Hehe.
I’m still struggling to articulate this, but I felt something here. The urge to take action. It was not like I didn’t know that I have to drink more water. But this piece of chart (data/knowledge) at that particular place with an immediate opportunity to apply it to my life and take action made the difference. I’ll let this toilet story brew in your heads as well. Let me know if you can make better sense of it!
I submitted a Science-Fiction short story to India Science Festival. It got shortlisted in top 20 entries :) Even Ranjan’s story got shortlisted. So, 2/20 entries from the Hyderabad Write Club. Yay! Taking pride for no reason that only my title is not in English :p
I hesitate to write about my dreams, more of the fear of not fulfilling them. I want to put one out now. I wish to write and make movies like Carl Sagan :) He has been a great influence on me. This story is also greatly inspired from his sci-fi work “Contact”
One of my works at UrbanEmissions is to scan a city using satellite images. To scan means to manually scroll across the city and find sources of emissions: factories, power plants, brick kilns, etc.
Whenever I visit my friend’s towns/villages, I ask them “How does this place earn money?” In Hyderabad, I know that most money comes from the IT sector — which then gets distributed in the city through various services.
When I scan a city for emission sources, I find answers to this question as well. Because most emission sources generate monetary wealth for that region (not applicable for service-based economies). Feels unfortunate. But that is what it is.
This week I scanned Lahore. There are many Textile mills, Poultry farms and brick kilns in the city.
Thejesh GN sent me a few Dust Sensors, Carbon dioxide sensors etc. I have been wanting to learn some hardware part of air quality as well. I’ll use them for that. I like this project of his — CO2 Notifications — where he receives notifications whenever CO2 levels in his room exceed a level. Will tinker a bit with these sensors and see what I can do!
How has your week been?