I PUBLISH, THEREFORE I AM

The traffic (This is the top-of-the-line topic and our Indian drives are just too amazing to be forgotten) The domesticated animals (“Dogs and Cows on the street” isn’t normal for many) The weather (this is an icebreaker; when there is nothing to talk…we talk weather) The spices (Did you know our curries are smoking hot and spicy, we never felt that way coz we are used to it) That’s the * incredible * in the Incredible India. I kinda love the fact that these things can be enjoyed only in a few countries. What amazes foreigners is that: it is really possible to be close to hi-tech work and nature. PS : I was talking about foreigners who come to India for some office work; not the once who come as tourists to roam the country.  

Ever wondered how organs are donated. I just came to know about it and this process needs improvement (through laboratory research, of course) on how the donation process should be and what all parameters should be considered when performing a donation. Some of the parameters that I can think of are: 1.        Who is giving the organ – can he live without that organ (if at all he is alive) 2.        Who is in the queue for that donation – first come first serve is legit 3.        Who is compatible (my organs are too big or too small for a lot you, and there is this difference in blood type and all that) 4.        Surviving quotient – If I give my organ to X, how long and comfortably will he survive; If I give it to Y, how long and comfortably will he survive. (If there is a substantial change of live expectancy for one guy to the other, thi...

I prefer being second in the last 100 meters of the race because I will have time to plan my victory. My plan is simple, I don’t want to think about reaching the finish line quickly or running too fast…all I need to make sure is that the guy-before-me doesn’t reach the finish line before I do .  The guy who is first has to look back or just keep going at his best; he can either be exceptional and leave no room for competition * or * I can outdo my best (20 meters before the finish line) to reach the finish line before he does. Now, the question is: why can’t I be third and plan even more about how I can win . It is because, coming first after having been third demands pure effort and planning-a-victory isn’t that effective as it is for the guy who is coming second.  

The point we were discussing: we are a group but we are not able to form a (dedicated) community ; one gentlemen starts talking about the group and gives one of the most educated opinions about forming a community: Your marketing yourself extensively, then registering yourself as a body with a board of directors is not gonna help you form a community…Unless you start doing some voluntary activities and start showing people some value…nobody will come and spend time with you (a.k.a be a part of your community) unless they don’t see value from a mile away. So, if you are a photographer and you want to form a photographers-community in your city. First things first, voluntarily give away your talent and show people some value. PS : This reminds me of one incident long back. I along with 8 others run a talk show in Hyderabad; we had an email thread where our team was discussing if we should call one person to our event as a speaker, I simply responded: if she can bring value to...

Most of us in around 4 years of our work-life want to lead and manage stuff (I can’t wait!). Some of us are ready but there is no requirement for a leader, some of us become leaders but no one in our team considers us to be one, some of us are leaders and are still unhappy with what we get to lead, and finally there are a few who lead well and enjoy their role. We show amazing leadership potential through whatever is that we do, but the point is…in the name of “I am a leader material” portrayal, some of us forget how-to-be-lead and what-our-leader-wants . I am trapped, I am trying to find a way out, are you too?… I think, what we should do is : showcase leadership, but understand that it is important to know how to be lead.

Pimp the language you use in the office, and tell everyone else to follow your lead. To bring a change in the way we do our work, we need to change the way we talk about it . Let’s cut the theory crap…this is what I mean: Say “Story”, don’t say “tasks”. Say “bug”, don’t say “error”. Say “Sprint”, don’t say “bi-weekly meeting”. Say “Morning drill”, don’t say “Status meeting”. Say “dude”, don’t say “colleague”. J (I got into trouble with this, but it’s ok, I just told that “dude” to chill) Sat “Pimp it”, don’t say “enhance it”. The formal language we speak at work isn’t real, it’s just too artificial…I sometimes feel like that. Pimping the language you use in the office isn’t very doable, but if you able to do it…tell me how? J Alright the...

You can’t escape from groupthink (yes! There is a term like that J ); if your group thinks that writing a book is not a good idea or making certain changes is going to harm the team…then there is no way you can change their mind because the decision is made for the group, by the group. We all have heard about majority wins (it sure does), but there is nothing that says majority is right . So, even if everyone in your group agrees to do something or takes a decision based on what the majority thinks, there are chances that it might lead to screw-ups. Coz, when a decision is based on group harmony and not facts, it is biased to an extent. Follow a group, form a group, but never shoot-down your idea just because the majority in your group thinks that it as a bad idea…the majority can certainly be wrong. Finally, read this amazing article on When the Majority Is Wrong , he talks about groupthink in investments.  

Having a pet in the office is good for collaboration (I know, it’s one of those freaky findings)…Anyways, I talk dog ( J ) and I know that it is a stress-buster, but the point is that we need to hire someone to clean up after that dog and we can’t afford to have the dog barking, licking…blah blah blah. All in all, the dog should be trained...like collaboration is extra work , even the dog that fosters collaboration is gonna need a trainer (costly trainers doing the extra work). It’s good to know that people are doing all kinds of study to unearth something useful (at least, remotely useful). Either ways, it is worth a shot in offices which have huge teams, long working hours, and dog-lovers…because it clearly enhances collaboration/teamwork.   Want more, read the crainnewyork.com article . This is one of those findings which makes people go “Why the heck would anybody invest so much time on this, this study is such a waste of time...

I am sure the best of the best think about their peers and get a little jealous or turned-down by their super-cool-lifestyle or salaries or happy-family or friend-circle or scores or education etc. And we just can’t wait to get to wherever our peers are. You and I experience it every now and then, and it is perfectly normal J …we just need to keep reminding ourselves about what the wise (old) men have to say about life, “ The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself ”. I am definitely jealous (not that jealous, just a little) of a few of my friends, and I am sure they have the same thing to say. And, I think we need this on a weekly basis because there hasn’t gone a week where I haven’t heard people talk about how amazing their friend’s job is, how their friends go on adventures every weekend or how did their friend get promoted in just 2 months…something like that.  

...just focus on what lead you to become unfocused. This isn't a wise-ass line, this isn't inspirational or motivating, this is simply the best tip to get you started and not get you thinking. The weapon of choice is not thinking how to focus, that's the whole point...think about what you did coz of which you lost your focus, and of course, don't repeat it.  

I wonder why people don’t SHARE (+1, Like, or tweet) when they read a good article. I mean, I see amazing analytics for my site pages, but I don’t really see people sharing my content, why is that: ·          May be, some of them are my friends and they can’t share my stuff (Friends are better-off bullshitting about my blog, I kinda like it because there is no such thing as bad marketing…if you are taking bad about my blog, you are marketing my blog). ·          May be, they don’t appreacite my article that much (This is true…you need to push your readers to a certain level to get them to share your content) ·          May be, sharing an item tells something about your pesonality (if you are a cool guy, you can’t share HBR.org articles in your wall (even if you like every article that’s posted in that site)) ·        ...

You should know this…most of us (at work) spend around 20% of our time on MS Outlook. You do care about that 20% of your time, right?  Whenever someone says anything about a meeting or about what I need to do a week from now, I go to my outlook and mark that email as * follow-up * or create a task with a reminder , it takes just 30 seconds to do it…I’ve been doing that for over a year now and I understand that reminders are far better than your memory…this is why:   Memory doesn’t interrupt you all of a sudden , reminders do, and it does get your immediate attention. When you postpone a reminder to a later date, you do it because you know the priorities and that that task can wait. You make a conscious choice. Reminders help you understand that the task is not even worth doing on a later date (at least, most of the times). That’s it. Learn MS Outlook, it’s a lifesaver . I am even ready to pay you if you can help me understand how to use every piece of that sof...

As long as your routine is: Get up without an alarm (even if you get up a little late and have a sense of urgency…but as long as you don’t use an alarm, you are doing good) Read while taking a crap (the crap in the newspaper helps you crap better J ) Taste and eat your breakfast (God dammit! don’t just eat, taste that freaking food) 25 minutes of sing-along music in the car/bike ride to work (sing it, don’t just listen…it’s easy when you are driving, only that the passerby thinks you are crazy (taking to yourself), so be it!) Smile and drink your tea, and get to work (this is a crappy part for many coz your workplace sucks, there is negative energy everywhere…in that case, change your job…call me, we have openings where I work J ) Take a lunch break (you remember what I said…taste it, don’t just eat it) Come back, take a nap or watch some videos and get back to work (sounds life heaven, not just that, it even feels like heaven to listen to Metallica after having solved a p...

I’ve asked this to almost everyone I met “ How did Metallica/Aerosmith/Kurt-Kobain come up with such amazing lyrics, they have got to be high-on-dope or crazy (because these things don’t strike the sane people)”. I am sure they were exposed to things that you and I will wish to never see in our lifetime, or simply put, something unreal. I think, they purposely expose themselves to these unreal things (or maybe, they just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time). They end up enjoying or getting-used-to pain, injustice, and suffering…and that’s what their lyrics is made of (which we love). You can’t be a rebel just because it is cool to be one , you can only be a rebel if you sense that you are the guy who is enlightened and it is you who should alarm the others…that’s what it takes to become a rebel. PS: After I re-read the post, I thought it is somewhat similar to the Rockstar movie theme. Sorry for spoiling it f...

The point is that if you review your material, you just have the same eyes looking at the same material again. These eyes can’t catch all the mistakes. I have been working on one write-up for almost 3-4 hours, every time I re-review my write-up, I find a fault. I did re-review my content for around 3 times, and even in the third time I had some mistakes to correct. Because of this, I showed my content to another colleague of mine and even he caught a few mistakes in my write-up and that was it. If you have been seeing something for really long, you won’t be able get everything right without having to get it reviewed . Or maybe, getting a review from someone else is the best way to produce the best write-up. Now I know why big organizations--with CXOs having seen the organizations grow--go to consulting companies like McKinsey/BCG/Bain to make process improvements in their organizations.

Although, he directs his anger to social media, his remark makes sense even outside of social media. Don't use it because it is available, use it only when you need it . Exploring things is way different from trying things out. If you keep trying new products online without having to have an idea of why you are doing it, then you better not do it. Now, enjoy the video.

People think Steve Jobs' death was mourned much more than Dennis Ritchie's. This thinking is based on the premise that Dennis Ritchie was an inventor of programming languages (that's like rocket science) and Steve Jobs was just a businessman making fancy products and selling them in premium prices. You guys need to stop doing this comparison. It's like comparing Mahatma Gandhi's death with Ramanujan's . The thing is, Ramanujan was an inventor and an extraordinary mathematician, whereas Mahatma Gandhi was the best of the best leaders of all times and overall a people's champ. When a people's champ dies, everyone mourns...but when an inventor dies, mainly his community mourns and not everyone associated with his invention. All in all, both of them were geniuses and both will be missed a lot. Having to mourn for the people's champ more than the programmer's champ is not injustice. Everyone listens to music in an iPod, but not everyone does softw...

If M.K.Gandhi (Bapu) is your role model. It is crucial that you know exactly who he is, what all he did...that said; I think you just had a change of heart, you changed your role model to someone less popular simply because you don't know everything about M.K.Gandhi and your not being able to answer questions about his life can make you seem like a faker.   The question is why should you know everything about someone for *that someone* to be your role model? No wonder, people never talk about the popular personalities as their role model, they safely say "My role model is my father/mother". Can't I just be inspired by the way M.K.Gandhi got us independence (just that one act), isn't it enough for me to consider him as my role model? I think it's enough; and I am saying that you too might want to think like that. PS : Guys, no offence. Our parents are our role models, no doubt; but many a times, we just want to escape from telling who our role model really...

I so want to say this to everyone. I mean why should you not directly go and talk or call a person who is sitting just a few blocks from your cubicle. Just like guys who talk about saving paper by not printing it, we need to save email messages by not drafting it . Don’t send emails!... emailing is fun as long as you are sending it to someone who isn’t near you. Also, if you need a proof or an approval, you gotta send an email to the guy sitting next to you, that’s legit. in general, stop mailing and start calling. More on Don’t Send That Email. Pick up the phone !.

If you want to guess if you can get a date with that cute women in your floor who just joined, have a baseline prediction of where is she from . This prediction can help you find if in the past girls like her have dated guys like you. And then if you come to know that she likes guys who are really funny, you can adjust your estimate to how humorous you are, and then come up with a better guess…you see, you can guess better if you just have a good baseline prediction. (this is called outside view ) By the way, no matter what, don’t start with a baseline prediction of how she is talking to others in the floor and how many times you have been shot down by other women on that floor for a date (this is called the shitty inside view ). Your see, inside view isn’t really that helpful. To guess better, use the outside view. Check your baseline prediction (more on Beware of the inside view ).