Generic vs Specialized

How can you get the best talent by organizing a generic talent hunt?
Take for example Britain's Got Talent. I know Susan Boyle is great, she was definitely the best singer of BGT but was she the best find for a talent compatition as opposed to a singing talent competition?

If you want to find the best talent in a particular field say saxophone it makes far better sense to organize a national saxophone talent hunt, instaed of a generic national talent competition.


A quick analysis of both:
Generic: Pros 1) you get people on the edges, say a mimic or a bartender, some eccentrics who aren't straight jacketed in a field but worth the find 2) definitely more entertaining : I wouldn't want to watch a national saxophone competition but a couple of saxophonists in a generic talent is bearable
Specialized: Pros 1) Higher quality. Definitely. The bar on generic talent shows is not high enough for that particular field.
The cons are just reverse for both.


Point is: for the sake of entertainment a certain degree of quality is certainly compromised. It is good to keep in mind that there are more talented people out there who need a break, we need to keep searching.

A unique take on college recruiting

So here is one of the coolest job sites I have seen. Groupereye is a site which has all the normal job stuff and also includes real time case competitions where students can compete for jobs/interns. Fantastic idea. Something to look out for , this is going to revolutionize college recruiting in a big way soon.

Just a side note: Statistics say that 80% of all startups fail. This is a combination of so many factors but the biggest is the lack of a unique product. With all the slew of different ideas out thee, you have to have a truly great one to be successful. Groupereye is one of them. You can check out there blog here.

The idea trigger

I used to attend department seminars on topics when I joined grad school all pertaining to my major industrial engineering. This is how the process goes, you understand what the speaker is going to speak on for the first couple of slides( which accounts for less than the first five minutes) and then for the next hour nothing makes sense.
Turns out it is still of utmost important to attend these seminars. The reason( my favorite professor and a friend explained) is pretty simple: they give you ideas. Research ideas for a new topic. It was eye opening to find out that my professor(with a brilliant intellect) also didn't understand most of the lectures.
Listening to the essence of what people are doing, might make you think of other ways to do it, or make you think about something unrelated.
Ideas are generated when we engage into either a) hardcore thinking b)when are minds are opened by someone else's creativity into unleashing the thought process, and activities which engage you to do that even for sometime are invaluable.

Building the Kiva tribe

I have this vision of building a huge Kiva tribe on the A&M campus. A tribe according to Seth: is taking finding something worth changing and then assembling tribes to do it. I want to create a Kiva movement. And I have to find those connectors who want to participate in social change.
A few things I have learned down the way while implementing this idea:

1. Marketing is so more important that one would think and so is the art of persuasive communication.
2. Learning to work in groups is an invaluable skill.
3. Leading a group of people is challenging. Delegating the right tasks and eliciting from people more than what they think they can do.

One of the best lines from Seth " You don't need to have charisma to be a leader.Being a leader gives you charisma"