Career Tip from an Economist

Google Chief Economist Hal Varian gives a timeless tip at this Freakonomics blog:

Q: Your job sounds extremely interesting. What jobs would you recommend to a young person with an interest, and maybe a bachelors degree, in economics?

A: If you are looking for a career where your services will be in high demand, you should find something where you provide a scarce, complementary service to something that is getting ubiquitous and cheap. So what’s getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data. And what is complementary to data? Analysis. So my recommendation is to take lots of courses about how to manipulate and analyze data: databases, machine learning, econometrics, statistics, visualization, and so on. (emphasis mine)

On that note, let me quote another relevant snip from there.

Q: You once said that “marketing is the new finance,” because of the data and tools that are now available. In your opinion, what are the three most useful quantitative techniques for analyzing this kind of data? To what extent does Google use this type of analysis?

A: The three most important techniques, in my opinion, are: 1) experimental design and analysis; 2) regression; and 3) Bayesian methods. We use the first two extensively, and are beginning to use Bayesian techniques more. (links to wikipedia added by me)

Incidentally, I'm looking for a industry change (Internet services to media) and just a couple of days back I was thinking that analytics could be one of my transferable skills.

Righting the Wrongs of the Past

I came to know the Stolen Generations only from Kalpana Sharma's "Sorry, a powerful word" piece.

Until the 1970s, Australia had a policy of separating Aboriginal children from their parents by force in an openly racist policy of social engineering that began in 1910 but remained unquestioned until 1970. In an effort to virtually eliminate Australia’s Aboriginals who have a living history going back some 60,000 years, the government adopted a policy of forced assimilation of Aboriginal children into white society.
...
February 13, 2008 will be remembered as a historic day in Australia. For, on that day, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Labour Party opened the 43rd session of the Australian Parliament with an unqualified apology to the country’s Aboriginal people.

The complete text of Prime Minister's apology is available here. This apology would be one of the momentous gestures in the nation's history and the genuine spirit with which it has been tendered is moving, to say the least. And sample this for the exemplary leadership shown:

The nation is calling on us, the politicians, to move beyond our infantile bickering, our point-scoring and our mindlessly partisan politics and to elevate this one core area of national responsibility to a rare position beyond the partisan divide.
...
Let me take this one step further and take what some may see as a piece of political posturing and make a practical proposal to the opposition on this day, the first full sitting day of the new Parliament.

I said before the election that the nation needed a kind of war cabinet on parts of indigenous policy, because the challenges are too great and the consequences are too great to allow it all to become a political football, as it has been so often in the past.

I therefore propose a joint policy commission, to be led by the Leader of the Opposition and me, with a mandate to develop and implement, to begin with, an effective housing strategy for remote communities over the next five years.

It will be consistent with the Government's policy framework, a new partnership for closing the gap. If this commission operates well, I then propose that it work on the further task of constitutional recognition of the first Australians, consistent with the longstanding platform commitments of my party and the pre-election position of the opposition.

This would probably be desirable in any event because, unless such a proposition were absolutely bipartisan, it would fail at a referendum. As I have said before, the time has come for new approaches to enduring problems.

Working constructively together on such defined projects would, I believe, meet with the support of the nation. It is time for fresh ideas to fashion the nation's future.

Delhi Metro: Behind the Scenes

The month of January was crowded with awards from one channel or the other. It is good to see when channels do not end things with the award ceremony and instead take the initiative forward to create content with substance. Yesterday night, I got to watch this 30-minute episode on E Sreedharan, MD of DMRC and CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007.

Delhi Metro is an economic and engineering masterpiece and productivity gains over the long-term should be immense. I loved using it during a couple of days visit to the capital during December, last year. It was equally satisfying to know about the visionary karmayogi behind it. His energy is infectious. Watch the videos and you wouldn't believe that he is 76.

Perhaps you earn more than Mukesh Ambani...

ET establishes through diligently researched logic that Dhoni is paid more than Mukesh! Deepak Shenoy, who publishes one of the sensible blogs on equity investing in India, takes that logic(?) forward and finds that he was paid more than Mukesh. You may want to join the fun and derive some hollow pleasure.

IBN goes nuts on crores

Or am I missing something? Just when you thought you had enough about crores, IBN follows it up with today's QOTD, "Are Indians no longer hypocritical about money?". If you answer to that question, you accept IBN's claim that "Indians were hypocritical about money". What does that sweeping implication mean? And do you respond when somebody asks you, "Have you stopped being a son of a ...?"

Opinion Polls Roundup

In general, I track news and opinions via Google Reader subscriptions. Occasionally I do find new content worthy of subscription by accident, as I landed on Business Standard's website today. Noticed that there was an opinion poll on - what else - IPL auctions. That triggered the curiosity to know about media polls that were centered around IPL. While I get to see opinion polls on TV channels during my dinner time, online polls would not catch my attention, in general.

Attempted a quick search for polls in 13 media websites (of English news/business channels and newspapers)

• I still can't believe that Headlines Today does not have a website. All I could find was this page. If somebody find its website, please point me to it.
• I could not locate any polls on 2 sites - The Hindu and NDTV Profit (the latter is surprising!)
  

That leaves 10 websites. At the end of it, I'm compelled to present a list of special mentions in order to share my thrills and spoils.

[Links to the websites are presented towards the end of the post]

Out of the 10 sites that I checked,

• The Abuse-conscious Poll Master: The Times of India - The only poll that was CAPTCHA-enabled (I've now spent close to four years of my career in anti-spam. Can't help being excited by such anti-abuse considerations)
• The Intrusive Poll Master: Times Now - Strangely, this mention too goes to the Times Group. Two polls are run under the names 'Opinion Polls' and 'Now Quiz'. To participate in either of them, you MUST enter your Name and e-mail (The polls are gracious enough to put Contact No. and Date of Birth as optional fields)
• The Discriminatory Poll Master: The Indian Express - Along with the answer options, you have to select one of the (India, USA, UK, UAE, Australia) options from the "I live in" drop-down list. I don't understand why anyone from rest of the countries should not participate in its polls
• The Torturous Poll Master: Hindustan Times - The unassuming poll is buried as a mere link in the home page mess. Click on the link to get the questions. Don't be satisfied yet! Though I clicked on the answer and pressed 'Submit', I abandoned the results after losing patience over the 'whirl' that followed.
  
• The Show-Me-The-Money Poll Master: Deccan Chronicle - No surprise! Though its website is titled as 'Deccan Chronicle on the Web', you are not allowed to respond to its polls 'on the web'. Send SMS-es. If you are too interested in expressing your opinion, spend some paisa on an SMS and let me get my cut - DC seems to suggest.
• The Swindler Poll Master: CNBC TV18 - It disappoints me to mention one of the few watchable TV channels under this category. After I took the time and effort to read, understand, form my opinion and respond to the poll, the damned site gives a blunt "Thank you for participating in this Poll" - no mention whatsoever about the results. Didn't I deserve a better treatment?
• The Sensible Poll Master: DD News - Surprise! Surprise! The only poll that gives the 'Total Votes' (in addition to the percentages for each option) in its poll results. (Ok. I lied. Times Now's 'Now Quiz' poll too gives the count of votes. But I do not like the fact that the site runs two polls under confusing names and presents the polls results inconsistently)
  

Coming to the nature of the 11 poll questions (remember, Times Now had 2 polls), 6 were centered around IPL. I am now convinced that CNN-IBN's QOTD emerges as the outrageously crassest question on the development.

Read as [Website - Poll Question - Options]

1. The Times of India - The IPL will kill cricket the way we know it - Agree, Disagree, Can't Say
   
2. Times Now (Now Quiz) - Will IPL match its inspiration and the more glamourous English Premier League? - Yes, No
   
3. The Indian Express - Will you watch the IPL cricket matches? - Yes, No, Can't Say
4. The Economic Times - Do you think bidding for cricketers is justified? - Yes, No, Can't Say
5. Business Standard - Is the IPL process of bidding for players good for cricket? - Yes, No
6. NDTV 24x7 - Do you think IPL will be successful? - Yes, No, Can't Say
   
7. DD News - Do you think Team India will win the triangular ODI series involving Australia and Sri Lanka? - Yes, No
8. Hindustan Times - Are not compensations under the law very low for accident victims? - Yes, No, Can't Say
   
9. Deccan Chronicle - Should Zardari unite with Musharraf? - Yes, No
10. CNBC TV18 - Do you see the profit booking continue in the markets? - Yes, No, Can't Say
11. Times Now (Opinion Polls) - Will Zardari and Sharif join hands to overthrow dictatorship in Pak? - Yes, No
    

"Is big money the best thing that happened to Indian cricket?"

Backdrop: Auction of players by 8 franchisees of the Indian Premier League.

And the title of the post is the QOTD at CNN-IBN.

News channels have gone into a swoon ever since the news broke and will remain so, for at least the next 24 hours. Perhaps the question is to know whether the public too is as mad as the media is about numbers that are prefixed by a currency name and suffixed by crores or millions or billions. Or perhaps the channel feels that this big money is THE BEST thing that happened to Indian cricket. How on earth would one dare to trivialize decades of momentous achievements of Indian cricket by comparing those achievements to a mere free market auction?!

Respectable News media, continue to run after Preity or SRK or some poor icon to capture an 'exclusive' footage of 'some parts' of them. At least, please exercise some care while framing QOTD so that you do not betray your crass thoughts.

PS: FWIW, when I answered 'No' to see the results, 'Yes' was 46% and 'No' was 54%. It appears that the channel has good number of like-minded company!

Imagine Performance

IndianTelevision.com reports:

NDTV Imagine CEO Sameer Nair couldn't have wished for a better opening.
...
Banking upon a variety of shows like Ramayan and Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan, NDTV Imagine has occupied 5.4 per cent relative market share in Hindi GEC. This places NDTV Imagine ahead of all the newly launched channels - 9X which has 3.7 per cent for the week (20-26 Jan) while Zee TV's sibling Zee Next (launched in December) has just 1.3 per cent channel share.

NDTV Imagine says it has outperformed all other GEC launches in the last four years as far as first week GRP goes.
...
Says Nair, "The ratings are a clear indicator of the connect we have made with viewers across the country. It is a good start and we promise to continue to entertain and delight our audiences with fresh and compelling programming." (emphasis mine)

Quantitative data sound cool.

Now check out how Sevanti Ninan marvels at the ingenuity of the channel in the 'Media Matters' column of The Hindu's Sunday Magazine. Since the sarcastic piece has to be read in its entirety, I am not quoting excerpts.

Outlets for Documentaries

IANS reports:

While inaugurating the 10th biennial Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films here Sunday...

The minister was quick to react to the angst expressed by Jahnu Barua, president of the Indian Documentary Producers' Association (IDPA), that Indian documentary and short movie producers do not find outlets to exhibit their productions.

He also said that if someone came to him with the proposal of setting up a channel exclusively devoted to documentaries and short movies, like the National Geographic, he would clear it within a week. (emphasis mine)

Any takers?

While corporate houses are going to serve us to death with news and general entertainment channels, there is no sign of a documentary channel offering. The commercial viability of a documentary channel, for sure, poses relatively higher execution challenges wrt producing engaging content. But then, don't we have people out there who love challenges? ...who have a longer-term vision? ...who own the responsibility to contribute to quality television content?

Ingenuity to Dumbness!

OMG! While I was proud that I had ingeniously coined a new term 'Mediacrity', Google just spit on my face with about 21,700 web search results and about 1,332 blog search results :(

On an optimistic note though, I am glad I have lots of company out there ;)

Urban Dictionary defines it as

An amalgamation of media and mediocrity, mediacrity defines the so-called "fourth estate"

And perhaps this dedicated blog may be interesting.