TED Community » Srini Srinivasan

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Work, creativity, travel, learning new things, Golf, Cricket, Basket Ball

An idea worth spreading

Finding better ways to narrow generation gaps, socially as well as technically speaking.

Talk to me about

Design, new ideas, life, travel

People don't know that I'm good at

Singing, cooking, small aircraft piloting

My TED Story

Still working on it!

Comments

• TEDCred score: +51.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +4

  A comment on Talk: John Hodgman: Design, explained.

  Jun 15 2012: I did not find it impressive enough to be a TED talk.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: If you could learn or unlearn one thing, what would it be?

  Jun 13 2012: The art of communication, especially "when to" and "when not to communicate". It is not that people dont know how to communicate, but often times one finds that they wish they had not communicated they way did, in a given situation. This is true for both personal and business situations.

• A comment on Conversation: How do people get a chance or create their opportunity to talk on TED?

  Jun 13 2012: Hi Dejay,
  When I registered for the TED Global, I got some emails which mentioned about submitting an outline for your talk and then a panel decides if the topic presented is good enough in line with the TED themes for the conference. Once the topic submitted is approved, a TED team will work with the individual to polish the talk content, help time it to the duration etc.
  
  Are you submitting any topic? Good luck..
  
  Hope this helps.

• A comment on Conversation: A network of TEDsters spreding TED across the web for maximum impact.

  May 31 2012: It is a good idea for a great cause. My apprehension is that those relevant groups which may benefit from these discussions may not be actively participating in TED web medium.. Unless there is a TED group within the popular social media platforms..

• A reply on Conversation: How did you find you life's work and passion after age 40? Is it possible?

  May 30 2012: Gaurav
  
  Thanks for sharing your comments. I think, one of the motivators for people who got some experience in hard start ups is "what else can go wrong"? This deja vu experience makes them to not fear the unknown and hence they tend to take the uncertainties in a more casual, but confident way.
  
  As far as your experience of doing a bunch of creative things, yes, I know people who have exactly done these things because of being challenged. It does take a lot of initiatives to do this, even if under challenge.. good to know you did those things to prove to yourself first and then to others.
  
  cheers

• A comment on Conversation: How to control distraction from work??

  May 30 2012: Chetan
  
  You brought an interesting topic, which we all see and get involved, day to day. I have seen this in some of my team members and ask them to do some minor adjustments in their work pattern. Here are some of them. Have a task list for the day and put it on your desk where you can see. I know this might get changed, but still worth having it. Next is to allocate fixed time to see mails, say every 2 hours or so. Do not reply chain mails even within the office, just stay patient when everyone else marked would have given their inputs, so you have a full picture and then you can respond. Don't send out "yeah, got it" or "thanks" emails, no one reads them. Phone calls: follow a similar rule, unless you know it is from your Boss, don't take it. Keep the small talk to coffee breaks or lunch breaks. Give an impression you are a busy guy and so others wont bug you unnecessarily.
  
  As the day progresses, check mark the tasks done for the day. This really helps summarize what you got done and what is left. Carry over the unfinished tasks for the next day.
  
  Hope these help. good luck.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: information and advertising on packaging (may offend!)

  May 29 2012: Great futuristic idea on packaging. Cost of technology would be a big factor in this becoming a practical reality. If major food industries come together this might be possible.

• A comment on Conversation: I'm 20 years old and my dream is to design and help build a big part of a city or a new city. Is this possible??

  May 29 2012: I would think this is very possible and you can follow some methods to getting there finally. The best bet would be to start looking at City /Govt planning department for an internship and learn how your City is planning for expansion. This should give you an idea of the urban development process in your chosen city and then you can contribute by providing a mock up design. Alternatively, you can learn which architects the City is using for its development plans and try and get a job there. I am positive these steps will take you closer to your goal. Good luck,
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Should TED Have Instant Chat like on Facebook or MSN?

  May 29 2012: Is not a bad idea at all. Given the current trend of rapid response to current topics on social media network, having an instant response is a good move for TED. Of late, people have taken to the habit of responding on the go, while they are doing other things and in the process also use very little time. Allocating time to go through a website and then respond is a bit of an overhead, in my opinion.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: How did you find you life's work and passion after age 40? Is it possible?

  May 29 2012: Woody,
  
  I am in mid fifties and have always looked to doing things differently when the chips are down. After starting as a Salesman selling computers, I moved to managing high-tech product development about which I had very little knowledge or experience. I went back to local community colleges and grabbed what I could in a few terms and got "re-charged" and ready for the job. After 3 start-ups that had very moderate successes, all in telecom, I moved out to heading a Creative Design company about 3 years ago. This was totally a turnaround from 20+ years of high tech industry experience and personal expertise. But once I got into the design industry, I must say I started "enjoying" every day at work more than my previous jobs, largely due to the uncertainty and creative nature of the job.
  
  As a design consultancy, each client comes from different product and technology domain, the challenges and learning are never ending for me. And as a leader of a very creative group of 100 members, I am able to keep my grey cells busy all through the day, which otherwise would have been getting duller by the day.
  
  Hope you find inspiration from all the comments your question has brought and make you "re-vitalized". I believe you have still a looong time to go!! Wishing you the very best.