One of the simple joys in life, converted to ones and zeros:
Digital Bubble Wrap

In Why India’s Wage Inflation Won’t Bring Outsourced Tech Jobs Back to The U.S., Cognizant CEO Lakshmi Narayanan provides a profile of his firm’s labor cost structure:

75% of Cognizant’s workers are based in India, but those workers account for only 20% of its labor costs. Conversely, Cognizant workers based in the West, mostly in the U.S., account for 80% of the company’s wage expenses even though they’re just one-quarter of its total staff.

Because wages paid to workers in India represent such a small percentage of total costs for companies that operate there, a 15% increase in salaries results in no more than a 2% rise in prices charged for IT services…

This is an example of the Pareto principle — and good reason for the U.S. IT talent pool to focus on building new skills. For starters, I recommend Dan Pink’s latest book A Whole New Mind to all the techies I meet.

The TED Blog just posted this 20-minute video from the presentation by architect Joshua Prince-Ramus at February’s TED conference:

If you have even the slightest interest in architecture or computer animation, the video is worth a watch. But there’s more to the presentation — and to Prince-Ramus — than just great architecture.

Fast Company has already pointed out that Prince-Ramus is the architect of a different kind of organization. Last year, during the unveiling of the schematic designs for the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, he made what he called “a little PR statement about architecture” to the Dallas audience:

Architecture is not created by individuals. The genius sketch . . . is a myth. Architecture is made by a team of committed people who work together, and in fact, success usually has more to do with dumb determination than with genius.

Article author Jena McGregor wrote that his statement was “a promise to his team that he will tirelessly promote their efforts and accomplishments,” and that he “is trying to make his mark without leaving any fingerprints.” She also did a Q&A with Prince-Ramus.

I’m not an authority on servant leadership, but this guy sounds like its new poster boy. Wouldn’t you want to work for him if you were a young architect? Wouldn’t you want him building your city’s new cultural structure?