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Conformity kills creativity.Conformity begets incrementalism.Incrementalists are opposite to Radical fundamentalists, who take risk to make break throughs of extraordinary significance.Wozniak is right, and has the credibility to say it. He is Probably one of the greatest inventors of all time.There is a place for incrementalists, like manager of companies, who are loyal to their managers, to keep the ship in the right direction.But, if you want to design and build a new ship, incrementalists aren’t useful.When India flaunts MBA-types who lead companies around the world, they are a testament to incrementalist thinking.CEOs of Pepsi, Adobe, Microsoft, Google are incrementalists. They are great at it. Good for them. We need them in society.But we have gotten an overdose of incrementalism as any citizen’s cultural milieu is concerned. The following scenarios demonstrate that.Scenario 1School Student: “Shakespeare seems to appeal to me a lot more. May be I should read the unabridged version and read his other plays”.Teacher: “Only abridged version will asked in the exam. Please don’t waste time and lose your marks in the exam”Scenario 2School Student: “These differential equations seem very routine and mechanical in Indian authors’ textbook, but the american author has not mentioned enough problems in the book, but has things, like ‘one can differentiate, whenever something moves’ and applied this concept to any physical phenomenon. May be we should read that and try simulations in a computer”Teacher: “In our good old days, we didn’t even have electricity, we used to practice the questions 3 times each on the back of newspaper in candle light and move on. This way we perfected the mechanics of the problem. Just because you have computers, you shouldn’t get distracted with simulations, Please practice the problems 3 times, like we did and get an A+ on the exam, so that your parents will be proud and don’t waste time on simulations, No body asks them in exams”(Indian sentiment applied in the all wrong contexts)Scenario 3Professor: “My professor’s professor wrote the third paper on generalized inverses of matrices in the whole world. I am teaching you this, so that you can also follow the, might I add, rich tradition and work on generalized inverses of matrices”.Student: “Sir, My interest is in Game theory, shall I write a paper on that instead. I feel that game theory appeals to me more and sometimes, I feel, I was born to do Game theory”Professor: “See, Mr. Whoever you are, I specialize in Inverses of matrices, if you want me to schedule your dissertation defence in the next couple of months, Work on this problem and help me write the paper, otherwise, I will recommend to the review committee that you haven’t completed your course work appropriately and I see problems in the fundamental understanding of the subject matter and postpone your dissertation for another year”Student: “Sir. Yes, Sir. Inverses it will be.”If one wants to be creative or wants to work on different things or make a different choice, the person has to fight the entire system to just to survive in India. This starts from kindergarten. There is a race to conformity.It shouldn’t come as a shock that we have someone of the magnitude of Wozniak making this statement. It is true.Another anecdote: Off the 7–8 people who were part of Paypal mafia, including Elon musk, Peter Theil, Max, Reid Hoffman among others, 4 of them made a bomb in the high school.This anecdote is an extreme end of the spectrum, but creative people, rarely fit a mould, don’t conform and do their own thing.So the next time, you see someone, say, your friend, family member, colleague taking risks, Don’t be that guy to negate him. Listen and encourage, them.I have addressed the issue and given some suggestions. It is worth a read.Akash Murthy's answer to What can we do to improve the Indian education system? How can a possible solution be brought to the government’s attention??

Here is a real conversation I had with a 93-year-old lady. She has been a friend of mine for over 40 years. She is originally from Europe and was in Europe during WWII so she has experienced the horrors of war. She worked for the Allies in Europe after the war and then came to the United States through the assistance of one of the Christian Churches so she has experienced the goodness and generosity of others. She is a very moral person, very culturally literate, well educated, an avid reader, uses the Internet daily to read her emails and order supplies through Amazon. She also loves to watch ballet on YouTube and DVDs that she orders online. This fine lady is very tolerant and definitely not racist. Her taste in movies is classic with some English dramas and comedies but nothing vulgar. She has never had a driver’s license, prefers to live at home, is by herself, husband is deceased, children live far away, has no other family still alive, can still walk on level surfaces, but can’t go much further than her yard. So that is her condition and background. I don’t know enough 93-year-olds to know if she is typical or not. I would guess that she is not.Another setup for this story is that we talk at length from time to time about the human condition, our responsibilities to it, and potential solutions to some of life’s issues and problems. Very philosophical in content. Now here is the gist of the conversation. I presented the following scenario.M. Let’s say that there is a booth in the room big enough to fit two people comfortably. The booth looks very inviting and has a nice sculptured white door with a golden doorknob. You are told that it is a special spa with reverse-aging properties, a veritable fountain of youth. The details are further explained that if you enter the booth and close the door behind you, upon reopening the door and leaving the booth you will exit with a 25-year-old body. Everything about your physical makeup is 25 years old! But you will retain all of your current memories.93. That sounds nice.M. How would your life change? For example, would you go out and meet some new people your own age?93: I wouldn’t even know where to go. I wouldn’t know how to talk to them. I certainly wouldn’t understand what they were talking about.M. All your memories are still with you and all that you’ve experienced in life still shapes your thoughts. But you have a 25-year-old body and can start over again. Your life is now ahead of you instead of behind you.93: I think I would stay as I am now. I wouldn’t go in the booth.M. Why not?93: I just wouldn’t fit in and I wouldn’t want to start over with the way things are today.-end of dialogue-Since the question asks about right or wrong, there must be a moral to this story. Think about how you felt about immortality at different stages in your life. Eagerness and even willingness to live forever is going to vary from person to person depending on genetic makeup, life experiences, education, and environment. The longer one lives, the more these opinion-influencing factors change, even genetics change through genetic expression which is directly impacted by environment and lifestyle over time. Isn’t it ironic that a question about time (immortality) is dependent upon timing (one’s age)? So I would conclude that the question of biological immortality is above ethics because the answer to the question of time is relative to time itself.

Generally, credit card interest rates are significantly higher than those of other unsecured credit instruments (eg: personal loans). Higher interest rates directly translate to higher EMIs for same loan amounts and loan tenures.From an Indian perspective, personal loan interest rates typically range between 9–25 % whereas credit card interest rates range from 18–45 % depending upon your card.For example, consider the following scenarioYou can apply a similar logic to paying credit card bills via EMIs. After the initial interest free period, your unpaid bills start multiplying quickly and you might lend up in a debt trap.For a more detailed reading, check out this interesting blog - Why is paying the minimum dues on your credit card a bad idea?