Dorai Thodla wrote a post “Triples” on the congruence of triples as recurring patterns in life.
Triples, Inspired by Dorai Thodla
- Budget, Quality, Time
(project parameters aka “Iron triangle” pick any two, solve for third) - Expert/Technician, Manager, Entrepreneur
(E-Myth roles in a business) - Beginning, Middle, End
(elements of a story) - Early Adopters, Mainstream, Laggards
(measures of risk aversion in a population) - Team, Technology, Traction
(VC tests for quality of a business plan) - Men, Money, Machines
(old business model formulation) - Financial, Intellectual, Social
(three key forms of capital) This trio became the basis for “Working Capital: It Takes More Than Money“
Inspired by Dorai Thodla’s “Triples and Congruence,” which includes these
- Time, Words, Opportunity: Three things in life that, once gone, never come back. I understand the bit about time. Never seem to have enough of it now. Yet when I was younger there used to be endless summers of boredom. While time may not come back, you can actually go back in time in memories.
- Love, Self-confidence, Friends Three things in life that are most valuable.
- Simplicity, Predictability, Extensibility Three qualities of software
- Laziness, Impatience, Hubris The virtues of a programmer from Larry Wall
- Subject, Predicate, Object These are called RDF Triples used in the framework for the Semantic Web
- RBG (Red blue green) Color coding in TV, Computers. Also Magenta, Cyan, Yellow in color photography.
- x,y,z co-ordinates of a point (in 3D space)
Related Blog Posts
- Startup Advice in Three Word Doses
- Dharmesh Shah’s Pithy Thoughts For Startup Co-Founders
- Six From “A Few Rules That I Try To Live By” by Buster Benson
Update May 5, 2025
Today I learned that Dorai Thodla passed away last year (2024). When KV Rao and I were co-chairs of the SDForum Marketing SIG in 2006 he introduced me to Dorai in 2006 and we resonated immediately. We collaborated informally on a number of project, comparing notes and ideas and new technology. What I remember best about Dorai are a half dozen conversations in different coffee shops in Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Cupertino, and Mountain View that lasted for one to two hours and were incredibly insightful and energizing.
Busy as a bee, he traveled between Silicon Valley and Chennai, and like a bee, he cross-fertilized efforts in both regions. He was willing to ask fundamental questions and start with simple techniques that evolved into new products. He was an original thinker and blogger, an entrepreneur, and a mentor active in the Chennai startup community. We stayed in touched by email when he was in Chennai and would meet for coffee when he was in town. My last email to him was in mid-2023 and I went looking for him today learned of his memorial service in Chennai last year.
When I started blogging in 2006 I did not anticipate including obituaries, but if you aspire to a long life you must recognize and celebrate all of those you have met and benefited from along the way. I am really starting to believe Herodotus: “Whom the gods love, dies young.”
Pretty cool. I will update my post with this link.
Doria