random ramblings

After a disappointing world cup final and 3 hr of sleep the previous night, I slept peacefully last night for 8 hours. The morning ritual these days is checking mails immediately after gaining some consciousness, today learned a new word first thing in the morning – Murmuration. I thought that was a made up word given as title to newsletters these days. Finally asked Google and watched some incredible videos of nature’s ballet in Youtube (nature’s dance and man’s music). Got hooked and continued watching and reading on these birds. Some interesting things about this phenomena –           This is often reaction to presence of a predator like Hawk or Falcon. Threat can be a great motivator.   –           Research says it is called “scale-free correlation”. “The change in the behavioral state of one animal affects and is affected by that of all other animals in the group, no matter how...

This weekend I was re-reading "Zen and art of motorcycle maintenance" after a gap of probably 10 years. I wanted to check whether with me being more "mature", if I understand it better – more on that later. One particular incident was kind of a coincidence. In the morning it was raining heavily – Monsoon is a week early. It was raining with the sound of a speeding train. I was reading a passage in the book about how people has a block with technology, willfully ignores and puts up with a problem since it needs them to bother about technical details to solve it. Author was recounting an experience of taking the motorcycle to a shop and getting it back in an even worse shape – people not caring about what they do, being in a hurry, not diagnosing the problem right, not bothering to test, taking it too light, being sloppy with work. I also haven't done much with my own car, never tried to fix anything myself other than changing a tire maybe – I...

I was thinking about time management, personal effectiveness etc and how we figure out ways to keep up. I am not claiming to be an expert, but wanted to share few things that worked for me. Would like to know any better tips and techniques that have worked for others. I think at this stage, as professionals, we are expected to take care of our responsibilities, we can’t have (mostly don’t want to also) someone to followup and not supposed to make up excuses for missing something that we were supposed to do.  In short, it is assumed that we are effective in what we do. There are a lot of advice out there such as Get Things Done (GTD) etc. I have tried many things – outlook tasks, followup with red/green/yellow/orange flags, to do lists in notepad, excel, notes (on paper or otherwise) etc etc. I think the key is to find a routine that works in which we can fairly stay on top. Some of what worked for me – Use a Daily planner / diary:- I don’t do hourly planning for a ...

Is giving the secret to getting ahead? The greatest untapped source of motivation, he argues, is a sense of service to others; focusing on the contribution of our work to other peoples’ lives has the potential to make us more productive than thinking about helping ourselves. The message sounds terrific: Feel good about your work, and get more of it done, and bask in the appreciation of all the people you help along the way. Nice guys can finish first! It is also interesting to see how this could be manipulated and types like – givers, matchers and takers. Our inconsistent ethical instincts We like to believe that the principled side of the equation is rooted in deep, reasoned conviction. But a growing wealth of research shows that those values often prove to be finicky, inconsistent intuitions, swayed by ethically irrelevant factors. What you say now you might disagree with in five minutes. And such wavering has implications for both public policy and our personal lives. I ...

After a long break. Sharing few links for now. Train a parent, spare a child During a function at my daughter’s school last week, a speaker was stating that by the time a child is 5 years old, he would have learned all the values for the rest of the life and that it is all "copied" from the main textbook which are the parents. I was thinking whether I have taught my daughter the right values and why didn’t I know that the "value graduation" is at 5 years.. Better parenting is one of the goals. economic predictions for 2013 Keyword seems to be “Cautiously optimistic”, like in our quarterly result. Btw, one good quarter changes the entire news cycle – everything that was gloomy now looks positive. What is entrepreneurship? I had read the book "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" by Peter Drucker. This article seems to be a good summary. future of programming Which programming skills to pickup? Smartphones can run consumer’s lives One of our pr...

I saw a headline other day about Nani in trouble with Fergie in Manchester United. He has been demanding more money, saying his career is being curtailed and got benched. Next day I was watching a ManU match and saw the veterans Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes playing – I think they had long career with ManU, well past their 30s and still favorites. I think Paul Scholes had an injury where he had some vision trouble – still Fergie stuck with him and he is still considered one of the best, still scoring crucial goals and making perfect passes. On this particular match, saw Nani wasting too many chances and Scholes opening the score. Then there was news of Fletcher getting a standing ovation – making appearance after a serious illness. At the same time the kind of stars that exited (or forced out) are staggering – Beckham, Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Tevez. Rooney came close to getting kicked out when he acted too smart in between. Then there is the example of Real Madrid (who in fact picked up mo...

a good quote, from Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker. individuals will have to learn new things well after they have become adults – and maybe more than once. what individuals have learned by age twenty one will begin to become obsolete five to ten years later and will have to be replaced – or at least refurbished – by new learning, new skills and new knowledge. individuals will increasingly have to take responsibility for their own continuous leaning and relearning, for their own self-development and for their own careers. they can no longer assume that what they have learned as children and youngsters will be the "foundation" for rest of their lives. it will be the "launching pad" – the place to take off from rather than the place to build on and to rest on. they can no longer assume that they "enter upon a career" which then proceeds along a pre-determined, well-mapped and well-lighted "career path" to a known destination...