The power of the internet!

Ok. I am going to write fast and am probably going to make tons of grammatical mistakes. But, I am trying to mark an end to the days when I was a consumer of information and transition into an era where I produce processed and useful information from what I see, read and learn.

There are several things which people fret about when they compare the developed countries to the developing ones. I refer especially to people such as myself who have spent time in both of them. The weather is more conducive and the competition is less are familiar comments. However, I am slowly and painfully realizing that the speed of the internet ranks high on that list as well. The typical model of getting information in the US used to be to stream it directly from the net. In India, the internet is used like electricity. Just as you charge your laptop overnight with power, so do you charge your computer with information over the night (via downloads). As one might suspect, there is however, no cross-selling of information in the latter scenario. What you download is what you see the next day. If you want to find more information, you just have to painfully wait for the next night to download it. And if you are human like me, you tend to forget what you wanted to search for in the day, by night-time. So all in all, a very inefficient process. Yes, you might underestimate it by thinking that nobody needs so much information and knowledge anyway, right? But no! Imagine day after day of pointless waste of the precious few hours you get after work. It is these hours that people in developing countries waste over trivialities and slow-inefficient actions that people with faster internet and information capitalize on.

Hence, the moral of the story: Get a fast internet connection and don't split it amongst your flatmates. It is one the most important expenditures that you can make from the salary you earn. Consider it indispensable, like clean underwear. And then, once you have it, use it wisely!!