The Masala Dosa Theory
Exploring intersections - When two seemingly distinct ideas makes a connection between each other. The newsletter is about such intersections.
If you haven’t noticed this already, I have been sending quite some sporadic emails, once a week, probably twice a week, or not at all, sometimes. I have sometimes questioned the whole notion of frequency.
Why does the regular newspaper arriving at your doorstep have the same 40 pages? So everyday there is same amount of ‘valuable information’ worthy for the audience?
Why cant some days when there is so much going on have like say, 100 pages. And why cant there be a day when there is just one page of important news?
What it means by having 40 pages of news every day on a newspaper is having a mix of signal and noise to achieve 40 pages.
The newspaper publishing process is similar to the metaphor of the Procrustean bed.
For those not initiated, Procrustes was this dude from greek myth, son of Poseidon with a stronghold on Mount Korydallos . There he had a bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith's hammer, to stretch them to fit. In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length trying to fit the body to the bed exactly according to its dimensions.
The finer point which I am trying to make is that sending out a newsletter every week just for the sake of it, is again a procrustean bed.
Why should I send you a weekly newsletter just for the sake of it?
I want to give you all pure signal, and no noise. And in this pursuit, I will be sharing content as and when greater ideas and stronger connections reinforce :)
Masala Dosa Theory
Another advantage of sending across a scheduled newsletter without actually following a fixed ‘schedule’ is better explained through the theory of Masala Dosa.
Let me take you on a ride through a small thought experiment.
Imagine you have plain dosa every day for breakfast. For those of you, not familiar with dosa, it’s a south indian rice pancake better explained with this yummy gif below.
Let’s say, If you are to have plain dosa everyday, at some point of time you are going to get bored of eating dosa, right? However amazing dosa could be, You will still get bored. In sanskrit, there is this nice phrase that better explains this phenomenon - charvitah charvahah charvanam (chewing the chewed chewing gum)
Let’s say, P stands for Plain Dosa, then the following sequence denoting the dosa consumed everyday would look like this — PPPPPP… (so boring)
Now, assuming that you can only pick dosas for breakfast, how would you make this more interesting?
Masala Dosa might be interesting? Yum yum, Stuffed potato fillings. How about that?
Let’s say, M stands for Masala Dosa. The everyday sequence might look like this now— MMMMM…
Which is again boring. You just can’t stand having Masala Dosa everyday how much ever increds it could be.
So if you are a general seeker of adding more spice to your life, and make every day more interesting, what would you do? (for this thought experiment, just assume that you can only choose between dosas)
You might just add variety?
So how about MPMPMPMPMP….
Or PMPMPMP…. MMPMMPMMPMMP..?
Even then, chances are that you would still feel bored at some point. Any pattern (PMPMPM.. or MPPMPPMPP) is about following a routine. Routine makes it predictable. Being predictable kills you from within.
Take your own example. If you knew exactly for sure, right to the very minute what would happen every day for the rest of your life, would you be excited with life? Not much. The same is with dosas. Once you know the sequence, there is no thrill.
So what could be the solution then, to increase the excitement and enjoyment that comes with eating your daily breakfast, even if it is just plain or masala dosa you could choose from?
Enter the world of randomness.
What if you flipped a coin, and chose either masala dosa or plain dosa based on the outcome of the coin?
So you could expect anything every other day, and you never know what dosa you are going to have!
Wouldn’t that be exciting? Randomness brings in that.
Even getting plain dosa one day (which might otherwise seem boring) becomes an exciting ritual to experience.
And to think further, even if you get five plain dosas with the throw of dice, it is still exciting to have! Isn’t that a very unlikely coincidence to have?
PPPPPM…
PPPPPPPPPMMM..
MMMMMMMMMMMM?
So if you’re still trying to figure out why I chose to send sporadic emails, It is just my style.
It’s more like the masala dosa you get one day. Or the plain dosa?
Who knows what you get, or the day which you get it, you never know. Which makes it more interesting?
The Masala Dosa Theory
I read the Masala Dosa theory, there is a formal name to this concept - Variable Intermittent Rewards - Read more about how products like apps use this technique in Gamification to keep the users interested in the app - Read more about it here - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pm-lesson-15-variable-intermittent-rewards-keep-customers-aditya/