Wikipedia article page views are a great indicator of the public's interest in a topic

It's high-time that Wikipedia page views trends are commercially harnessed. There's a lot of commercially-useful information hidden in these page views statistics, especially if one can also have access to the geographic locations from where these hits come. It's so interesting to see the spikes resulting from events or news stories about a topic [Superjet 100 in this case].

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09-May-2017

As in the case of Trump versus Hillary, in the recent French election too the winning candidate had higher Wikipedia page-views in the days before the election, strengthening my belief that this could serve as an important indicator for predicting who is going to win an election.

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Wikipedia's talk pages have a wealth of additional information not found in the main article!

This isn't very known. The talk pages of the most controversial Wikipedia articles usually have a wealth of additional information that hasn't yet made it to the main article [and some of it will likely never make it]. Types of information in talk pages includes facts for community consideration, opinions, concerns, claims, rants, unproven "facts", food for thought, requests for edits, and so on. If you're looking for a comprehensive, holistic picture on something, then you should definitely look at the talk page of an article.

For example, the article on the controversial Gaza flotilla massacre incident includes a lot of information in the main article body. However, if you visit the current talk page or any of the several archived versions [1, 2, 3, etc.], you'll realize that there's a wealth of additional information out there in these pages, and reading it can add much value to your overall impression.

Similarly, the article on United States war crimes gives you some picture, but it's the talk pages [current, archive 1, archive 2, etc.] that tell you the bigger, hidden story.

Half the world's problems will be solved if corporations and people aren't allowed to lie

Look at this beautiful advertisement of Qatar and Qatar Airways. Makes you feel like Qatar and Doha are beautiful places, isn't it? Indeed they are, except that Qatar is also a barbaric country that is accomplice [along with US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia] in the murder of thousands of innocent Syrian people. The ad doesn't tell this to you. Half-truth, in this case, is tantamount to a lie. The viewer is left with an impression that Qatar is awesome and beautiful, but no one educates the viewer about Qatar's ugly side.

This example can be extended to other corporations and countries. We are literally surrounded by advertisements and messages with praise about everything. South Koreans praise themselves, with no one telling the world that South Koreans eat live animals - an inhumane atrocity. Boeing praises itself all the time, but hides the dozens of design flaws discovered in its products. And so on.

The result? Most people do not make optimal choices, as they are largely unaware of the other side. To end this, we must outlaw half-truths and lies. Corporations must not be allowed to lie. Nor should they be allowed to present only handpicked facts. A fully-informed society will take much better decisions than a half-informed society.

Investigating a one-time, abrupt rise in the number of page views of Wikipedia article on S³ Asia MBA

I usually keep a watch on the number of page views of the Wikipedia article on S³ Asia MBA, in order to see how much interest the program attracts. The last time I checked it, there was a six-fold increase on 16-Oct-12 [screenshots below]. Why? I got curious. Was some news story published that I missed? Why this sudden increase in interest? The only plausible explanation I have found is that the release of FT's business school rankings around 15-Oct-12 led to a spike in the page views of the article on National University of Singapore, and this increase led to an increase in page views of the article on S³ Asia MBA [which is linked from the NUS article].

Apple and the arrogance of emails

Received an email from Apple today for an offer to apply for a position related to Supply Demand Management:

"...connecting with you with regards to a career opportunity with Apple for the one of the roles we have within Supply Demand Management..."

I received the email at 12:42 PM on 18-Oct-12, and the sender added the following sentence to her email:

"Look forward to hear from you by 19 Oct 12, 9am. Thanks!"

What the hell is this? She's giving me less than 24 hours to send:

1. Updated CV.
2. Cover letter [obviously not a generic one].
3. A Word document with my "insights" on eight long questions asked by her [separate from cover letter].

Are you serious? You believe that I don't have any other work? Am I supposed to leave every other work on my schedule and devote all my time to her email? Arrogance at its finest.

I replied to her declining my interest in the offer.

Such a coincidence that I read a high-profile story today about Apple firing a legendary iPhone-hacker because he forgot to reply to an email offering him a job extension. Apple HR folks are mired in arrogance and clearly are disconnected to the mindset of hackers.

MBA destroys the engineer in you

When one is an engineer, there is usually only one correct answer. The best answer. And it can be proven that that answer is correct, and the best. An engineer usually emphatically and vigorously puts forward his answer, his solution. Not so when you do MBA.

MBA teaches, rather forces, you to use vague, uncertain words and phrases such as "might be", "could be", "it is possible", "perhaps better", "likely to be", "uncertain business environment", "perhaps more important", "it depends", and other useless bullshit. Not only that, MBA forces you to use fancy concepts [the sandwich approach, for example] to put forward your thoughts or criticism or feedback. It also forces doublespeak and euphemisms deep down your throats ["your stupid mistakes" turns into "areas of improvement for you"] ["reduced profits" becomes "compressed profits"]. Finally, it makes you use crappy jargon such as "kickoff meeting", "leverage", "basis points", "opportunities", "synergies", "deep dive", and so on.

Frankly, MBA destroys the engineer in you. Or at least it tries. It's up to you to make sure that you only let in good stuff, and keep the bad stuff away from you.

That being said, and to be fair, it's important to remember that all of these fake words, fake tones, doublespeak, etc., that I've mentioned above are not only useful in the real world, but also necessary. It's important in real life, for example, to "manage all your stakeholders" and "to set expectations", so to say.

I have always been clear in my mind that I will not let my MBA make my language vague. I have always believed in and exercised straight talk and clear thoughts, and I will continue to do so [unless, of course, MBA-like language is absolutely necessary to get a particular work done]. I have used direct, un-MBA-like language in this post too :)

I am Rishabh Singla and I approve this message.

Rishabh Singla

MBA: National University of Singapore

MBA: Korea University Business School

B.E.: Delhi College of Engineering [University of Delhi]

Update [Nov'12]: I laughed when I read the press release of Monitor Group, clearly written by MBAs, stating that Monitor had "agreed to join forces with Deloitte". Wow. MBAs painted a fatal bankruptcy as joining forces.

Flightfox is ripping off its so-called "hackers"

Look at this contest. Flightfox's hackers gave the contest-owner seven highly-competitive flight options. Many hackers devoted many human hours to find, post and tweak these flight options. And the owner, after having looked at all the options he got, acted clever - he got his money refunded saying "The results weren't impressive.".

Not only should such losers be banned from Flightfox, but the website itself should have a policy whereby such greedy contest-owners are not given their money back. Otherwise, Flightfox itself is a ripoff.

Proof that Western media deliberately did not report pro-Assad events

The screenshots below show how even 18 hours after the pro-Assad protests in Frankfurt [Germany], no Western news website [ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, FT, NBC, NYT, WSJ, etc.] reported it. The only websites which reported this were Tehran Times, Press TV and RT.

Is this a coincidence? Statistically, such a coincidence is impossible. I think there's much more going on here than meets the eye.

Is IndiGo airline leaving money on the table?

I must admit, IndiGo's international fares are simply amazing. The two screenshots below show how the competition just doesn't stand anywhere in comparison to IndoGo. However, the large difference in ticket prices also raises a question - is IndiGo airline leaving revenue and profit on the table? Can it increase its revenue and profit by narrowing [slightly] the price gap with the next best fare available [so much so that its sales aren't hurt significantly, if at all]?

An advantage university-based business schools have over standalone business schools

This is something I've realized now at NUS Business School. NUS Business School is based in the heart of NUS. NUS itself is a sprawling university with centers and schools for science, law, arts, social science, computing, engineering, mathematics, design, medicine, dentistry, public policy, music, and others.

NUS also has full-fledged arms that cultivate, facilitate and promote entrepreneurship and technology commercialization - NUS Enterprise, along with NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC) and NUS Industry Liaison Office (ILO) - as well as full-fledged and well-endowed research wings.

One of the electives this semester is Technopreneurship, and an optional add-on to that is the Frugal Innovation Lab. The latter, in particular, is about creating a working prototype of an innovative product or service, along with a comprehensive business plan to commercialize it. The teams in this Lab are all cross-discipline, with individuals from engineering, science, business and entrepreneurship blended together and made to work like a startup, complete with funding. Need information about IP protection or patents? Find someone related to law. Need advice on human anatomy? Head to medicine. Materials? You have it.

That's where I realized the potential and power of a business school that's inside a university. You have experts and students from all disciplines right next to you, and forming cross-faculty teams is effortless. Business schools in universities such as NUS, NTU or IITs have this unique advantage that standalone schools don't necessarily have. It's about fully utilizing these resources.