Desiderata

From Full text of Desiderata

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy

R.I.P Aaron Swartz

The exemplary human being Aaron Swartz – author of RSS (not RSS of India), co-founder of Reditt, co-author of Creative Commons and many more is no more. Apparently he took his own life. The legacy though is worth remembering and getting inspired from. With the media and the people with limited memories where upon death anyone and everyone is whitewashed into a ‘hero’ this eulogy is rather inspiring. Even with all the activity he has done self-lessly this is a story worth imbibing.

http://www.quora.com/Death-of-Aaron-Swartz-January-2013/Is-Aaron-Swartz-a-hero

Read Quote of Brian Browne Walker’s answer to Death of Aaron Swartz (January 2013): Is Aaron Swartz a hero? on Quora

Talk it out

The Indian Debating Union.

Compound interest is the natural rate of growth

• Daddy’s, Mommy’s and Granddad’s and Granny’s tales of meatballs and chocolates for less that 1 paisa… Horrors of inflation now
• Stories of radios, black and white TVs staying put for generation and a new generation seeing Color TVs, Computers and the newer generations only knowing the phones, tablets
• Organs transplant which is still a complex procedure is already being talked about in terms of organ growth. Stories of 3D printing which are now the reality. Organs next.
• Simple websites until 2000, AJAX websites in 2004 – 2006, COMET, Bayeux, WebSockets in 2009
• Economic Depression in the 1970s, then the recession in 2001, then in 2008, then whispers of anytime now

As I keep looking at the changing landscape everywhere particularly technology, which is effecting the changes in social, cultural, economic backgrounds. Knowledge unlike any tangible entity keeps building on top of the other. Cross pollination of ideas, mutations, lateral movement builds on top of the other. Small changes keep accumulating on top of the other.  It is easily possible to trace this back to compounding, the natural name of the game. Particularly with Knowledge and Technology it is clearly a rate of growth that is not discernible to the human mind. As humans, we are thoroughly incapable of guessing what can be achieved in 1 week (over expect) vis-a-vis what can be achieved in 10 years (under expect). The human perceptional system is quite incapable of thinking in terms of exponential growth – linear growth only is perceptionally assimilated.

Is it that the signal processing cannot work effectively in a non-linear environment? Are we tuned to ignore the linear movement? Or is it that as humans we also keep moving and the relative velocity (with time) makes it a linear change?

I think time being a invisible entity but then as part of everything is easily ignored. There are times where I do think that every entity *must* be related to a time event.

A one rupee on a modest 10% rate of interest grows to 17 rupees over 30 years. Here is the excel to play around.

The fun begins when you change the rate to 11%, 12%, 20%… Think of this: If you think your company is not paying you well, ask them to pay you a 12% fixed hike every year. No need for a blockbuster hike – you know how that ends, don’t you?

The world this week [sic]

Turned 30. Too many things to do and too little a time left.

Neil Armstrong dies at 82. This was the first man to walk on the moon. In a couple of decades, Dragon X [and many others] will commercialize cheap [sic] flights to the stars and beyond … but until then this was the first man to walk on the moon. Something to think about. Beyond all the conspiracy theories of the man on the moon and movies (Scorpion One), the amazing work that Ron Garan is doing engaging with the civilians directly, kids sending balloons and cheaper cameras, its a wonder unfolding right within the very eyes. But until then think about it, the man on the moon who was.

The other living Armstrong, Lance decided to not fight anymore. When I see the media reports streaming in, it looks as though he has been convicted – the facts and the procedure presents otherwise. Reminds of the elections in UP the other day where it was said that Dimple Yadav won unanimously while the whole truth was she was selected on basis on no other contestants. Media – it is a disservice if you are looking for a story and not telling the facts.

Apple won in the ‘Apple vs Samsung lawsuit’ with Samsung being ordered to pay in excess of $1B. What that means for the rest of the Android devices, for Google, for Nokia and Microsoft, Bada OS only time will tell.

man in the mould of god or vice-versa ?

All the texts of origins of different religions talk about a beginning. A beginning that was begot by a single all knowing all powerful being. And humans who were moulded in his / her shape. If it looks fine, if it feels fine and if it smells fine… then it must be fine. However when I was at the Birla Science Museum a small thought stuck with me.

On the geographic timeline, Earth was born 4.6 bya (billion years ago). Earth did not cool down and the first rock forms did not appear until 3.95 bya.  The first sign of life (single celled organisms, etc) up until 537 mya. The mighty dinosaurs not until 249 mya. They ruled and utterly dominated earth for about 160 my and suddenly inexplicably go extinct around 63 mya. The baap to the current humans the homo-sapiens came in at around 190,000 years ago. On a geographic time scale of 24 hours, the dinos ruled the earth for a fill 1 hour and we have been here only for the last 8 minutes. We are already talking about devastating dangers to our existence. (Hat-tip : NatGeo)

And I yet cannot understand for the love of it, that none of the texts of god even talk about a past filled with dinosaurs. The stories never even talk of mighty beasts and yet they seem to be a commandment of higher all knowing beings. Were the all knowing beings ignorant or just plain absent-minded and forgot to tell about the dinos. Anyways, the question will keep raging for a few more decades anyways. I for one have to seem to have found my own small cubic millimeter of peace. I for one have found my answer. An answer that just talks about the limits of human imagination, the power of social media and society, the complete power held by beliefs rather than of rationality.

How to work with me

The first time I read it here (Hat-tip @derblub) , I saved it in a text file for my reference and to internalize it. However for the sake of posterity and my own predisposition towards spring cleaning I’ve decided to save it here.

This is something I am going to send out to my minions and their minions to work with one another. Tee hee!

• I prefer to work fast, minimize bullshit, get to the point.
• You will sometimes have bad news for me. I want it immediately. I can usually show you how to fix it. And I never blame the messenger.
• Bring pen and paper to every meeting with me. Pay attention to what I say; I’ll try to speak with care. If I frequently must repeat instructions, or remind you of something I’ve already told you, you will not work with me again.
• If I’ve scheduled a weekly meeting with you, don’t assume that this meeting is the only time to raise issues with me; Interrupt me for time critical issues.
• If you have a meeting with me at an assigned time, and I am in another meeting with my door closed, interrupt me. I stack meetings, and each meeting leads into the next.
• I like “micro-meetings”. Get in quick, bring only the necessary parties to the table, make a decision, get out. Five minutes or less. Make these effective by knowing what decision needs to be made before you start, and presenting the decision criteria ahead of time to all participants.
• Stand during micro-meetings.
• I don’t like email, particularly for discussing complex topics. If a decision needs to be made, do a micro-meeting. If a problem needs to be discussed, ask the person with the most depth to prepare something, an agenda, have a whiteboard, and work through it quickly.
• One exception to the above: I like “micro-updates”: Quick emails confirming time critical commitments and mutual understanding. These are especially useful after we hold a meeting and I give you a set of directives: I always like to hear our agreed-upon commitments echoed back to me. I may not respond, but I will read it. Keep these emails short: Spare me the greetings, thank yous, regards.
• Be consistent in your communication. Use words consistently. Use email headers consistently. Strive to make your work immediately comprehensible.
• If you disagree with me, voice your differences. I welcome and invite dissent. If this makes you uncomfortable, feel free to prepare your thoughts after the meeting and then later return to make your case.
• Ego-driven debates annoy me. Check your ego at the door: I’m only interested in reaching the best, most elegant solution —I don’t care if it’s your idea or mine.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you’re not clear. I have more patience for explaining and clarifying my position before you start than I do patience for fixing a wasteful, incorrect approach after the fact.
• Don’t tell me something is in the process of being done without telling me when it will be done. I’m more interested in the time commitment than the fact that an effort exists.
• Always give me options, informed by an economic analysis where possible (if there are dollars involved, an analysis is mandatory), and then make your recommendation. Don’t tell me there’s a problem without offering a solution. Don’t offer me multiple solutions without giving me your best and final recommendation.
• If you must prepare reports for me, review spreadsheets I’ve created. Copy the style and format.
• Don’t send me long documents. I like precision and concision. Say it on one page (or less).

Slow and Steady: How we got it all wrong!

My dad and I were having a discussion while we working out today and something just popped up during our discussion. He was ruing about the huge difference in his physical form since his young days, but my point was that he would have the form if he would stick to a regimen regularly. Only if he could dedicate an hour daily working out doing some basic workout he would definitely get back to better physical levels.

And just then I had my Eureka moment! How much as a society do we underrate consistency!!! I can only hark back to the roots in ‘slow and steady wins the race’ proverb, from that fable of the hare and the tortoise. Sadly, then and now the lesson has been lost on all of us – even the teachers that taught us I guess. I don’t think as young students we ever considered that the tortoise won the race because it had a steady pace towards reaching its destination; it was always the fact that the hare slept in the middle and that is why it lost the race. Had the loser hare not slept it would definitely have won the race. And this is precisely where the whole of our life got screwed up splendidly. The significance of the tortoise winning the race because of its slow and steady pace always lost out in the grand scheme of things.

It just doesn’t make sense – that such a significant lesson was never repeated over and over again to us during our years. The fact that we would be much better students, persons and even physical bodies because of this simple fact screws all of us even now. We could have been so much better had this been drilled into us more rigorously.

Our exams would not have consisted of having to study in the last one day prior to the exam. Bills paid in the last minute. Tax planning would not have consisted of losing almost all of the last month’s salary.

Warren Buffet isn’t him because he had one big hit all his life and then just slept through it. It was just a measly 20% year on year for the last few decades. Had this been the case of 1 hit wonders all this wealth would never have been made. The significance of compound interest is just lost. In fact, the point of regimen is about compound interest. The skills, work and all benefits are just amassed on top of the assets already made. Its about working through inch by inch.

This just means that to achieve all the goals that we ever wanted to achieve – it all boils down to a single mantra – Inch by Inch, Day by Day – that is all it takes – a simple disciplined regimen. And the biggest lesson of all it just works. The grand canyons or the valleys – never happened over our lifetime – so that lesson never existed in the first place. But the other lessons need not be lost on us – smoking and nicotine accumulating in lungs over the years – systematically – that’s how rust happens; systematically, slow and steady, precisely what we as humans with limited memory and power of recall should be very worried about.

My last 1 week of experimenting on my ‘Do nothing’ vacation has yielded significant results for me personally. That a simple regimen of working out daily, reading for an hour, having an hour of silence, indulging in conversations with all I hold dear – all this seem to make significant impact in the quality of my everyday life. Every day is a lesson in understanding the impact of Regimen.

Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours really seems to be true.

teenmaar

The movie is mostly a copy of the much better made Hindi movie ‘Love Aaj Kal’.

Teenmaar opens with a very powerful and of course completely irrelevant premise – that it being the story of 2 senadhipatis and about ‘Art of War’. Positively flummoxed it was a very interesting start to an already known love story which was supposed to have zero talk about politics, battles or even arguments.

Generally remakes are very easy bets. All that the director has to do is understand the spirit of the movie. Understand what made it click with the audience and that’s it. The screenplay, the settings, dialogues are all tailor made and available as raw material for the new one. ‘Love Aaj Kal’ had a very simple premise – the way youth from 2 generations looked at love. They had 2 different and probably even valid view points – it was left to the audience – the director only had a story to narrate. And here sadly the director never ‘gets’ it.

Here it becomes a war of old vs new – how the new never appreciates the old. A long winding sermon of a movie showing everything the new does as childish or even immature. That a whole generation gets labelled as selfish and not without a vision or a heart.

Nevertheless, the moment the hero Pavan Kalyan started mouthing Italiano much to the immense pleasure of the heroine – all hell broke lose. If that was Italiano no doubt James Bond never needed them skills to seduce his women. At the top of his game (implying that Pavan Kalyan has already peaked) he was a romantic fast talking enigmatic young warrior, all his movies then were genuine runaway hits. But in this one – the Italian is crap (Im yet to hear a Italian accent that as indecipherable as his), the dialogues so pedestrian, the movie so twisted out of shape – its a shame. Only 2 songs were worth listening and neither of them had any meaningful lyrics to think back upon.

The older one is dressed in kurtas and jeans all the time – I am still having a hard time figuring which part of India he was from – for all I know this might be intentional to keep us guessing about the time period and place he was from. Telugu film directors were never very good at period movies anyways – a british autocrat who would appear in sunglasses in one movie and here the protagonist appears in jeans. Sometimes I wonder if the Indians think of developing countries as lagging the developed countries by 20 – 30 years – so its only a matter of time – we would reach them in couple of years time ‘anyways’.

It must be the pure Indian hypocrisy at play – that Indians have no problem working with or under Americans – they even make their fortunes there – but anytime an Indian decides to deride them in his own mother language – the movie ends up in loud cheers. And sadly that was a biggest saving grace for the film – the only decent bits of comedy.

And I understand its going to be a massive hit.

what breaks?

Yesterday, we were working late hours in office, obviously work. And obviously with the rules in Hyderabad where late night working souls cannot have any food security after 11 pm in the night, we had to start searching for a goo place to have some food. Infact as far as economic incentives work out, with a commodity so rare and market would always exist, and as most of the things theoretical, this one did too. However, the shop makeshift shop owners did manage to make some very good food, the occasional warning would come from the lady that the police might come any moment so we better not crowd before the shop. And comply all did.

The constables came on their rounds and talked to the owner. We were pretty much done too. However then came the Rakshak vehicles and mercilessly start lathi-charging the silently eating customers. We managed to escape but by the time we came back to retrieve the vehicles, we were presented with a not so pleasant sight.

The ramshackle kitchen was a mess. The policemen managed to uprooting everything destroying a push cart on the side. The stove was broken. Men were absent. Women were cleaning up the mess. The story started to unfold… When the police were lathicharging the eating men, some of them mutinied and hit them back. This pissed off the police real bad and the scene turned pretty nasty pretty soon. Most of the things were destroyed and most of the men taken in the jeeps to the police station.

This begs some questions
- Why would a 11 o clock shutdown exist and still night shift employment permitted or atleast rules not made clear that the employees had to arrange their own food
- What was the need to lathicharge a peaceful silent group of people eating their late dinner?
- Why not simply ask them to leave? If a shop is serving food, why hit the customers?
- What was the rationale where the constable doesn’t put the word sternly to close the shop? No kickbacks are being hinted at here, but given the scenario, why not
- Why in the hell though that some other places its still open after 11. I personally know of atleast 2 other places that the business goes on till the wee hours in the morning

Or as I would ask … What breaks?