One Minute Blog: Why did Facebook Acquire Confirm.io ?

Consider some of the recent challenges faced by Facebook-

1.     In 2017, Facebook admitted that the suspected Russians were paying to boost posts in the US to influence 2016 presidential elections. Facebook has millions of advertisers and buying ads just needed a FB page and a credit card and some trivial details.
2.       Facebook recently admitted that nearly 10% of its 2.1 billion user base are the fake accounts, arguably a leading source of fake news.

3.       In the event of you forgetting FB password or accounts being locked, Facebook needed to ask users to email the copy of the photo ID and do the verifications offline.

In all probability, to deal with these challenges, Facebook recently acquired identity origination platform company- Confirm.io.

So what does Confirm.io do? 
Based on thecurrently available information, Confirm.io-

• offers to existing customers an API that lets companies verify the authenticity of government-issued IDs.
• It's service also handled biometrics and facial recognition data.
• The company can combine data pulled from an ID card with biometrics data pulled from a mobile device and facial recognition to verify the identity of a person.

Next few months would really tell how this technology is helping achieve the possible objectives of the acquisition but with the trust-deficit widening in the digital world, this technology may just pave the right path to instil more accountability in online interactions.

Here's a sketchnote explaining this acquisition: 

References and inspiration:

https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/23/facebook-acquires-id-verification-startup-confirm-io/

https://www.nasdaq.com/article/facebook-fb-buys-confirmio-strengthens-security-measures-cm909997

One Minute Blog: Does Your Decision-Making Style Sucks Energy Out of You?

Sometime back I read about why Mark Zuckerberg wears the same t-shirt to work every day and the reason he gave has stayed with me. He does so to avoid something called as decision fatigue.

All of us have limited will-power during the day. An engrossing event like decision-making sucks up the will-power. And a routine event like deciding what to wear, often consumes the diminishing will-power. Not only Mark Z, but the likes of Barrack Obama, Satya Nadella and many successful personalities have such tactics in place to cut-the-decision making crap and focus their limited energies on the right areas.

As the fastcompany article revealed, Jeff Bezos is a big believer of streamlining the decision making. He has even instituted a 4 step process:

1. Decisions that are reversible, can use a light-weight process.
2. Don’t wait for 100% information before making decisions. 70% is just-about right. Waiting for 90% information to be available usually slows down decision-making.
3. Stakeholder alignment is important to achieve the results from the decisions. However alignment is also harder to achieve. In those cases, it’s helpful to say, "Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?"
4. To avoid energy drain, escalate misalignment issues early, and immediately.

What is your decision making style? Does it return you energy or take energy out of you? While you ponder over this questions, do catch-up with this sketch-note.

One Minute Blog: What Really Separates Best Performers from the Average Ones?

India recently won the ICC U-19 Cricket World cup. Like with the various moves India U-19’s legendary coach Rahul Dravid makes (being his huge fan), I followed his post-tournament interviews with much admiration. One of the things that struck with me was this quote of his-

"It was interesting because the 2012 final featured India and Australia; the result of the final will tell you that India beat Australia. Six years down the line, while only one of those boys played a couple of one-day games for India, four-five Australians have gone on to play for Australia. So, more of their guys have gone on to play first-class cricket. The debatable point is actually who won that final, if you look back six years later. So I think those are interesting chats and conversations to be had."

Most people choose only failure as a credible source of learning. Here,Dravid brings a very refreshing perspective on performance. Not only is he insisting to learn from success (by choosing to look 6 years back) but also rather than choosing to bask in the glory of current achievement, he chose to take a larger view of time. 

I was recently reading this mind-opening book- Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. One of the chapters did talk about how best performers choose to look at life so differently than the rest, like Rahul Dravid does.

Do observe, assimilate and apply the below learnings I have organized from the book-

One Minute Blog: Marathon Running- A True Metaphor For Life

In the last 4 weeks, I endured and completed:

1. Ultra Marathon: Bengaluru (50 Km) [7th-Jan]

2. Mumbai Full Marathon (42.195 km) [21st-Jan]

3. Oxfam Trailwalker: Bengaluru (100 km) [2nd-Feb]

With many marathons over the years, i have deciphered that-

"Runs end, Running doesn't".

Each run teaches you something about life. Here, I am sharing this reflection from my recent runs.

Following are usually the phases one goes through while going through the marathon-

0 km: I know I can do it.

21 km: It's getting painful. Did I make the right choice choosing to do it?

30 km: Why the hell did I start?

38 km: I am close to giving up.

40 km: I think I can push a little

42.195 km: Never experienced a high like this.

Does this cycle sounds familiar with anything insurmountable you have attempted?

The cycle begins by taking a high risk, bringing in high energy, dealing with (often) self-created doubts, questioning the very reason to start, almost giving up, and while on the verge of giving up- putting in that additional 1% effort (baby steps) that gets you closer and eventually embracing glorious and glittering medals of success.

The path to eventual success in high risk ventures was never linear, will never-ever probably be.

Realized that Oprah Winfrey was bang on target when she said-

 "Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it."

Here's a sketch note about this experience: