Generic vs Specialized

How can you get the best talent by organizing a generic talent hunt?
Take for example Britain's Got Talent. I know Susan Boyle is great, she was definitely the best singer of BGT but was she the best find for a talent compatition as opposed to a singing talent competition?

If you want to find the best talent in a particular field say saxophone it makes far better sense to organize a national saxophone talent hunt, instaed of a generic national talent competition.


A quick analysis of both:
Generic: Pros 1) you get people on the edges, say a mimic or a bartender, some eccentrics who aren't straight jacketed in a field but worth the find 2) definitely more entertaining : I wouldn't want to watch a national saxophone competition but a couple of saxophonists in a generic talent is bearable
Specialized: Pros 1) Higher quality. Definitely. The bar on generic talent shows is not high enough for that particular field.
The cons are just reverse for both.


Point is: for the sake of entertainment a certain degree of quality is certainly compromised. It is good to keep in mind that there are more talented people out there who need a break, we need to keep searching.

A unique take on college recruiting

So here is one of the coolest job sites I have seen. Groupereye is a site which has all the normal job stuff and also includes real time case competitions where students can compete for jobs/interns. Fantastic idea. Something to look out for , this is going to revolutionize college recruiting in a big way soon.

Just a side note: Statistics say that 80% of all startups fail. This is a combination of so many factors but the biggest is the lack of a unique product. With all the slew of different ideas out thee, you have to have a truly great one to be successful. Groupereye is one of them. You can check out there blog here.

The idea trigger

I used to attend department seminars on topics when I joined grad school all pertaining to my major industrial engineering. This is how the process goes, you understand what the speaker is going to speak on for the first couple of slides( which accounts for less than the first five minutes) and then for the next hour nothing makes sense.
Turns out it is still of utmost important to attend these seminars. The reason( my favorite professor and a friend explained) is pretty simple: they give you ideas. Research ideas for a new topic. It was eye opening to find out that my professor(with a brilliant intellect) also didn't understand most of the lectures.
Listening to the essence of what people are doing, might make you think of other ways to do it, or make you think about something unrelated.
Ideas are generated when we engage into either a) hardcore thinking b)when are minds are opened by someone else's creativity into unleashing the thought process, and activities which engage you to do that even for sometime are invaluable.

Building the Kiva tribe

I have this vision of building a huge Kiva tribe on the A&M campus. A tribe according to Seth: is taking finding something worth changing and then assembling tribes to do it. I want to create a Kiva movement. And I have to find those connectors who want to participate in social change.
A few things I have learned down the way while implementing this idea:

1. Marketing is so more important that one would think and so is the art of persuasive communication.
2. Learning to work in groups is an invaluable skill.
3. Leading a group of people is challenging. Delegating the right tasks and eliciting from people more than what they think they can do.

One of the best lines from Seth " You don't need to have charisma to be a leader.Being a leader gives you charisma"

A quote and a great video

Art is not the antithesis of science. An education system which asks you to choose between the two is totally flawed. I fully understood this concept in graduate school that
a)science is creative
b) science is intuitive
c) if you are in the sciences then an understanding of art makes you all the more better at science and in no ways diverts you from it.

An amazing video(brought to my notice by Garr Reynold's) which talks about the sciences and arts.



And here is a brilliant quote from the video:
"If you don't care where you want to get to, it doesn't matter which way you go."
-Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland

What do we take away from a course?

How do we judge whether a course we have taken is of value ,in a field like engineering, where we what I learn today changes tomorrow( I am not talking about the basic principles but advanced applications). These are the metrics against which I decide whether a particular course is successful:
1. Has this course pushed my mental limits?
2. Has this course added a new dimension to my thought process?
3. If I knew I would never use what is taught in the course( which is almost always the case),would I still take it?

3 Yes's and the course is definitely worth it.

Value of free work

Basic assumption: the greater the salary, the better the work.
This is flawed.
For example a small company will pay its receptionist much less than a large company, but the type of the work is the same. You have to answer the phone.
A company pays more because it has the ability to, a high paying job speaks about the company, never the job.
So the newer a person is in his career/in college , one should never think about the pay. It doesn't make a difference. Think about what you will end up gaining.
Eg: Doing research for free under a prof/ flipping burgers in Burger King. One does not pay the other pays, but the one that doesn't counts( unless you want to become a chef).
A smart person ultimately ends up being paid well unless he himself doesn't want a high paying job.
Thinking long term and ahead of short monetary gains always makes sense.

The world catches up

The world catches up rapidly with the innovator.
Take Starbucks, for instance. It introduces coffee, triggers the ubiquitous coffee drinking culture in US and then the world . Now there are hundreds of coffee shops everywhere. From Mc Donald's to the exclusive coffee shops it's all over the place.
I guess it is really tough to be in Starbucks shoes now. You did start it, but now you have widespread competition, and it takes much more effort to sustain the the ingenuity. No one remembers you started it but it takes a hell lot to keep growing and sill be the leader. Still maintain the edge.
Google wasn't the first search engine in the world. But now it's the only one we think of.
Competition makes sustenance tough. Innovation is never enough. To lead continually, you have to have much more than that. You have to be the best all the time.
Like Starbucks, like Google.

Innovation within your reach

Innovation comes as huge as your imagination. Literally, which translates meaning there is no cap on how much a person can innovate.
I recently saw a cartoon strip with no characters, it blew me away. Just boxes. Wish I could post a link, but forgot the source.
So that takes us to what we produce is what we can visualize, but it takes effort to convert the visualization.
Redefining what is done. Questioning basic assumptions.
Start innovating. All you need is an open mind.

Book review: How to be like Walt by Pat Wiliams, Jim Denney

Think of Disney and we immediately associate it with fun, adventure and larger than life quality.
I( and maybe everyone) have grown up watching the Walt Disney classics be it Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Snow White etc. The book is about the man behind it all: animation, Disney land : Walt Disney.
Not only is this book about the life of this legendary genius but also great perspective on what all of us can learn from him.
Firstly: After reading this book, Walt Disney has become one of the most inspirational people I have read about.
Surprisingly Walt Disney was a self educated man." Successful people are those who have learned how to learn. Whether college educated or self educated, successful people depend on themselves, not others for their knowledge, skills or wisdom. People who are committed to life long learning have everything they need to shape their destinies."
Walt Disney died early of lung cancer. Williams sketches a real biography, showing Walt as as a real person, bringing out the possible flaws and the genius in him. It is extraordinary how he lived his life with a sense of urgency, adventure, with utmost focus and unlimited creativity which requires tremendous courage, the 'plussing' persistence, the triumph over so many failures and the vision.Phew that's a lot!
As Walt says he started with a mouse. And he went onto achieve an extraordinary amount in one lifetime.
He teaches you to think beyond your lifetime if you want to achieve something worthwhile.
" If you live your life right, things happen the way they are supposed to."
Some people live on after they die. It rings so true for Walt.

Google Chrome: an aberration?

Google Chrome, the web browser of Google somehow doesn't conform to Google's created rules. Here's why:

1. I have never seen Google's products being advertised in places. Never seen an advertisement for Gmail/ AdWords /Orkut etc. Ads of Google Chrome, keep popping up on the otherwise surprisingly clean Google page, my Gmail suddenly tells me I can access my mails faster if I use Chrome. Not very interruptive, but annoying to a degree. Essentially, I don't like seeing what I don't want to see.
2. Google chrome is a definitely faster web browser but I don't need it. I have problems with Internet explorer but still haven't switched to FireFox( I am lazy and I still can browse the net on IE). For once Chrome isn't a product I am in dire need of.
3. Chrome is not a refreshing breath of fresh air like other Google products. I am a huge fan of their search engine, their AdWords, Gmail but not Chrome.

I don't want a drastically different web browser, IE works fine for me(especially after the improved tabbed browsing on IE8) .

PS: Here's a review for Chrome I did in the Battalion when it came out.

The Susan Boyle Surprise

When Susan Boyle, a 47year old walked on the stage of Britain's Got Talent 2009 everyone expected it to be the producer's way of bringing comic relief to the whole line of auditions.
Predictably so. The rise of pop stars and stage events has made us associate amount of glamour to singing, and the image of Susan Boyle was quite the opposite of what we are used. Add the age and on top of that when she opened her mouth to speak it never betrayed what the voice was capable of.
To say everyone was shocked is to say the least. Her voice was endearing and moving and raised everyone to their feet.
Reminds me and everyone how important it is never to underestimate without giving them a chance. I loved her spirit and her belief in herself.
God bless her!

Always a first time

Here are the phases you go through under high stress:
1. Phase one:First your frustration limit, your stress levels are at the highest point.
2. Phase two: you surprisingly don't care anymore about anything in the world, that's what happened to me yesterday.
3. Phase three: You are for some reason happy and calm, when you shouldn't be.
PS: For some reason I really really want to write.. and I can't think of anything to write on. Also for the first time I don't have a deadline looming on me for some article!

I don't care

This is seriously scary: I don't care about the all the crap going on in my life anymore and it bothers me that I should be worried. The level of uncertainty doesn't get to me anymore.
Th crap:
1. I have no idea what I will be doing in summer which is three weeks away
2. I still don't know when to graduate
3. My degree has been blocked and I won't be registering tomorrow for fall classes when the rest of the world will. I might not get the classes I want.
4. Interviewers, companies are non responsive
5. I am binging on sweets stuff and gaining weight.

Arrggh..Why don't I care?

IIT tougher than MIT/Harvard? You are kidding..

In India I used to hear everyone saying( and all the media hype surrounding it) that it is tougher to get through IIT than even Harvard/ MIT. This is said mainly on the premise that the acceptance rate( the number of students who apply vs those who get through ) is lower for IIT than for the others. Lets explore the reasons why this isn't true:
1. Everyone remotely connected with science in India gives the IIT exam. If you have taken Maths in class 12 it goes without saying that you will be sitting( or your parents will coerce you into sitting) for the exam. No one just applies to Harvard or MIT, it is not a by default phenomenon.
2. You apply individually to Harvard/ MIT and it is not a joint entrance examination. I know quite a few people who apply to some really good colleges but not to MIT because they feel they aren't good enough to get through. I have never heard anyone saying I they won't be giving the IIT exam because they aren't good enough, people just give it.
3.The cost of attending Harvard is so much more than attending IIT. There are people who don't think of attending such schools solely because of the cost and never apply. Never happens with IIT.

IIT is tough to get through but I am pretty skeptical whether it is tougher than Harvard/ MIT.

Orkut copying Facebook

I have been noticing for a while, Orkut adding more functionality to its site to make it look more like Facebook.
Latest addition: you can chat with your friends who are online.
Started with replying easily, comment moderation on photos, tagging friends etc.
What I wish Orkut had( hope they do it next): the same network functionality of Facebook. You can only view profiles in your network. Higher privacy settings.

Atheists

Malvika just posted this unintentionally funny video which had me in splits. This guy in the video asks five questions to atheists and asks them to answer it. This is a must watch.
For all my atheist friends here they are.
P.S.1. Thanks Malvika.
P.S.2: Everyone is welcome to comment

Scalability of jobs

I am currently reading Taleb's the Black Swan. I like the perspective of how he has explained why actors, writers are such extreme professions and why it is so difficult to become an A grade actor.
My explanation was that they require no formal training which makes the field so wide open and increases the competition. I mean formal training is available but for most part inherent talent rules the roost.
According to Taleb, the problem with these type of scalable( extreme) professions is that one person takes a huge( or almost every part) of the benefits and most of the people in the group get none. Like there is one Julia Roberts and so many insignificant actresses who don't get much while she gets to take home 20 million dollar paychecks. The economics of getting into such a profession is extremely unbalanced.
Another factor which hypes these professions is that the media always projects the glamour of these professions and delude people into thinking it is somewhat easier and all what one could want. This is turn increases the competition making it tougher to crack it in the first place.
A lot of things have to be fall in place( some random) to be really successful in these extreme fields.

Altered

I found this quote in a design book( on good PowerPoint presentations)I am currently reading which alters a famous quote by Abraham Lincoln.
"Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man's character give him power".
The altered one:
"Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man's character give him powerpoint" !!

Book Recommendation: Outliers

" The three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying and meaningful are: autonomy, complexity and a connection between effort and reward."- Malcolm Gladwell In Outliers.
Picked up this book by Gladwell(his latest) called Outliers. It is such an insightful read. In case you haven't read any of Gladwell, you must do, they provide insight and dimensions to ordinarily accepted phenomenon.
In Outliers he questions the really famous and successful people(like Gates) and probes into what makes them so successful. The answers extremely hard work( 10,000 hours), getting the right opportunities( luck) and the right cultural legacy.
The best of Gladwell: He weaves stories to make his point. Strong stories that stick. Makes his books so riveting and drives the point home.
A point he makes about why Asians are ordinarily better at math(with a few tweaks): "We sometimes think of mathematics as an innate ability. You either have it or you don't. But mathematics is not so much ability as attitude. You master mathematics if you are willing to try. Success is the function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for 22 minutes to make sense of something that most people give up after 30 seconds".
From my experience, that 's pretty much true for everything.
Loved the book.

Book review: Unaccustomed earth

Just finished Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri on Divyani's recommendation.
Its been a while I have read fiction that I liked.
If you haven't read this book, it is awesome.
And I was no Jhumpa Lahiri fan, especially after reading the Namesake( don't read it its terrible). I was also tired of people writing about immigration and the issues people deal with , but that is besides the point.
I haven't read the whole book only half of it: the story of Hema and Kaushik. Its amazing.
Read it as soon as you can.

A note on Lahiri's writing style: It's simple. Love the underlying humour in places. And loooove her excellent observation and the nuances of which she incorporates in her writing. Appreciate it even more since I have stayed in the US as well now.
Go read Hema and Kaushik. I won't spoil the story for you even a bit here.

Encarta gone?

I read recently that Microsoft shut down its encyclopedia Encarta.
Brought back a few childhood memories when Encarta was the sole source of doing class projects. For picture, information... our very own know-all.
God wish someone had predicted what Google and Wikipedia combined would do.

Then you look around and see it happening in other things as well: newspapers for instance.
So if you are in Encarta's position what do you do?
Provide your information free? Go for a premium subscription with most of it free?

Its tough to compete when you know your opponent gives it for free. And almost impossible to displace it.
How does one compete with Wikipedia?

But maybe someone can attack Wikipedia's weakest link:( which is why it can do so much for free):The credibility and source of information since anyone can edit it. Thus Wikipedia can never be quoted as a reference anywhere legitimately.

For an instance even if I find some piece of useful information for my articles on Wikipedia I am never allowed to quote them. So I spend so much more time searching for places which I can provide as authentic references.

How about a site which provides us information and also legitimate sources for references to quote in articles, projects, papers. Limiting who can contribute and making it a knowledge powerhouse.
I hope someone does this in the future.

Good quote

Just read this nice Winnie the Pooh quote in William Flaiz 's blog:

A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.

A good pitch

I am pretty tired of hearing environmentalists talk. This does not mean I am insensitive to the environment changes (I am concerned) but I don't like hearing the same stuff.The environment pitch is essentially the same: carbon dioxide levels are going up , ice is melting, ocean levels are up blah blah blah.
Even a class 2 kid knows this now.
We all need to hear something dofferent: this is not motivating large numbers to act.
I came across a refreshing talk on the environment which lingers. I love the presentation idea( a video instead of powerpoint slides), brought to my notice by Garr Reynolds.
Here it is.

Romy's Book review: Pour your heart into it

This is my first book review for my blog. Initially I actually thought I would do a blog of only book reviews but the rate I write is far greater than the rate at which I digest books.
I am on a non fiction phase of reading so you will pretty much find non fiction stuff in all my reviews.

The book I picked up: Pour your heart into it: How Startbucks became a company one coffee cup at a time. by Howard Schulz

Review: This is one of the best business biographies I have read. Howard Schultz the CEO of Starbucks started the coffee chain by working as an employee in Starbucks( not to confuse it with what it is now, it used to originally never sell coffee as in expresso and only coffee beans and such).

The book charts the journey of Howard and Starbuck's( how he transformed it into the giant ubiquitous coffee chain from his humble beginnings).
There are some very interesting facts about the company. Starbucks has pretty much got to where it is by pure word of mouth advertising. Shows how powerful word of mouth can be.
Also Starbucks painstakingly and meticulously serves the best coffee. Schulz says that less than 10% of the customers really understand how good the quality is but the company never compromises on the quality(and the efforts that go into it) no matter what.
After reading the book you realise how value and product oriented the company is. Americans have started to view Starbucks as a corporate entity present around every corner, but the company actually goes out of its way to educate their customers, understand their needs and serve great coffee. Wow.

One of those unputdownable books.
Rating:9/10

Nowhere to run

Graduate students lead crazy lives.
A number of things one will surely learn and face if you plan to go ahead and study more:
1) Multitasking: You juggle work, cooking, studies,meetings, laundry and trying to get in sleep very efficiently
2) Peculiar eating patterns: One generally eats two meals, breakfast and dinner. We have the luxury of eating three on weekends. This doesn't mean we are thin, vending machines do exist.
3) Managing deadlines: You get to know your speed of work well. For instance I have an assignment( a biz memo to write) in two hours, but I know it takes 25minutes to write a decent memo and 1 minute to get it printed. So I will start precisely after 1hour and 34 mins.
4) 1000000 kPA: All the profs load you up with so much work and conspire to stress you out. Honestly after some time you get so used to it it barely makes a difference. Bring the pressure on.. I don't care!
5) Retail therapy/ Chocolate eating/Music works: The moment you have those days when your head is about to burst you learn that the aforementioned things work wonders. ( I just ate half a pound of chocolates yesterday, bought 3 unnecessary shirts I will never wear last week and I am listening to music right now).

Born Newton?

I have heard a lot of people saying they are not creative enough and it is something they don't possess.
Most people aren't born creatively talented.
It is something that grows with application. So if your aren't applying your creativity somewhere, chances are that you won't feel creative.
If you do, you will find your inherent creativity taking you by surprise. Same applies for intelligence.
Both tie down to the same thing: Working hard.
Tried and tested.

The Starbucks Coffee experience

The best customer service I have had has come from Starbucks.
I am not a coffee drinker and despise the aroma of coffee beans which hits you the moment you enter a coffee shop.
You get it: I am just not the kind to experiment buying coffee let alone Starbucks overpriced coffee.
Then in one of the Battalion meetings, I win a door prize of a Starbucks gift card(that was probably the first time I got lucky in a luck draw).
That's how my first Starbucks visit came about. And I went purely because they have other options apart from coffee, like milkshakes( I am serious about disliking coffee).
Take away the coffee aroma and the ambiance feels like home. The music(jazz) is soothing and inviting for conversation. The barista who took my order, was surprisingly patient with my ignorance and dislike about coffee, gave me a million other options and helped me choose one.
Understood( not difficult though) that I am a huge chocolate fan, concocted the best double chocolate chip milkshake I have had and a biscotti. All the time he did so in a genuine , unhurried way. And yes even waived the amount which came above the gift card limit.
I would love to go back again.
Wish customer service was more like this: a genuine interest in your customers and unhurried.

Its back!

Yay!! I have started reading again voraciously.. the best thing to happen today.
I have a very queer relationship with reading best expressed by a line read in Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird.
" I don't like reading, you don't like breathing do you?"
It rings so true. Reading is as natural to my existence as breathing is. Something you can't do without but its not super fun doing( unless you are reading Bill Cosby or Calvin and Hobbes). An external entity which is intertwined in me. You just do it naturally and you have to do it.
I had been in this not reading as much as I used to phase for the last 2-3 months but somehow it is back. I am so glad it is.
I am so grateful that I have experienced the joys of reading, not many people have and the people who have know what I mean. It is something that I developed as a kid, growing up in the reading frenzy environment of the PGI campus. My fellow PGI readers will agree. This is a habit you don't develop in a day but it kind of grows on you over years.
Somehow reading gives me mental peace and calm. A spiritual calmness.
Yay again to reading!!

Cluttered

No I am not talking about my room here.
My head, it is too cluttered with thoughts. So many things to work on, so many results uncertain, so many deadlines to meet.
I need some peace in the chaos.
Feel like running to the Himalayas away from the insanity at times, but have to stay and fight it out.
You get it, spring break is over and the Monday has started with a jolt, taking time to get used to the rhythm and the buzz and the pace of work.
Submitted my worst assignment ever today, due to procrastination till the very last second. Thank god he lets us drop two homework scores.
A particularly annoying classmate to handle whose interference level I just can't take, and who shamelessly ignores the fact I am ignoring him.
And cooking turn today as well. And work. And project work. And meetings and readings.
Will stop ranting and start working.

GRE part1

Vinita has been insisting that I do a GRE post( she says it will be of relatively more use than my other posts and more informative).
Ok so here's what I would advise anyone taking the exam:

1.Enjoy the process of discovering the meanings of words. A very high sore cannot be achieved otherwise. It is very easy to instruct anyone to learn Barron's but to learn and retain 3500 new and tough words is some task.
2. Read read read: Read one newspaper, preferably Hindu cover to cover everyday without exception of exams.You come across newer words and I believe this has a direct impact on your performance in RC's.
3. In the last four months practice extensively: Practise from all sources you can find online. You can do this for free and not have to spend money on tests/ books. If you lay hands on the Bigbook it is a good practice source, but remember the GRE paper is way tougher than the practice tests on the bigbook.

Four tests you should give during the last month(for free) to evaluate yourself and your performance:
1. Princeton Review: Difficulty level medium. A score of 1450 in this test translates to 1500+ on the final exam.
2. Kaplan test: difficulty level high. A score of 1400 should translate into 1500+ in the final exam.
3. Barron 's tests: Difficulty level easy.A near 1600 score( that's right full!) will translate into a 1500+ in the final.
4. ETS test which comes with the CD after you register for GRE: Difficulty level: exactly GRE level. The average of your scores on the two tests is what you should get in GRE approximately. It is the best indicator. Should be given last.

In the last two months itself you should give as many practice tests online as you can.Any and as much practise is beneficial. Also makes you more confident. I have seen people whose scores have crashed due to nervousness.

Favorite orator

One of my favorite orators of all time is Randy Pausch.
A little background: He was a genius,a Carnegie Mellon professor in virtual reality who found out one day( in September 2007) that he has pancreatic cancer and has a few months to live. He was married and had two small children.
There is a tradition in Carnegie Mellon that when a professor retires , he is supposed to give a last lecture. So Pausch did,well before his time and its one of the best lectures I have heard.
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

It will take some time.

Getting in the flow

How many blog posts does it take to get into the flow of blogging?
Seth says 2000.
I don't know I am not near the 2000 mark by a far shot. But I do know that there are days when you don't feel like writing and don't blog.
All in all it does take considerable time to be consistent. But the more I blog the more it grows on me, the more the day feels complete when I do.
Pretty interesting when you start blogging enthusiastically then a time period comes when you are plain bored of it and you abandon this crazy activity. It all depends if and when you feel like coming back to blogging. If you do, your blog flourishes.
Most bloggers I have seen have abandoned their blog within the first ten posts.
If you make it beyond the ten, you are here to stay!!

A Google fan

I am a huge Google fan.
Here are a few reasons why:
1. They have the best search engine ever
2. I love their design of their pages: clean white and no ads on the front page
3. Their applications are always the easiest to sign up for. Gtalk take 2 seconds to download and has the smallest size in comparison to Yahoo, Skype, Aim
4.Google ads is awesome. I know for a fact how it makes advertising online so more effective and affordable.
5. Their products have empowered so many people. Geting us information we want and essentially connecting the right people together.

Customer driven newspapers?

I agree businesses should be built around customer driven models, but not all businesses. This works for great Southwest airlines and most stuff but not newspapers.
Make food products what people want to eat, give them the exemplary customer service which makes them happy and give them want to read in celebrity magazines.
But not in newspapers.
You can't put everything in the newspaper according to what the readers want to hear. Newspapers come with the duty of educating and education( through information) is not always a pleasure to read about.
Isn't that what local newspapers cater to? They inform the community about the events which happen in the local area.
The idea of having a newspaper to inform more about the events in a community is great, but it kind of leaves the people being informed slightly disconnected from the overall picture of things.
In fact, as much as I love the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times I yearn to read and learn more about what's happening outside US, even though they do have some(meagre) international coverage.
It is possible to build a newspaper telling stories( and not US or local centric stories only) and then marketing it to sell. Not involving marketing so that you alter the product altogether.
Customer driven newspapers don't work for me.

"Strategically" business like

The business school has a totally different sent of communication rules and it's own lingo.
Firstly they never express things simply and have these total business like words of expression. If you are new to the business culture it will take a lot of effort to understand a business lecture. A business person will always add strategic before a word, and in most cases its never required. Like strategic thinking, strategic positioning, strategic business models and strategic advantages. Its honestly crazy, and all the time you are wondering why on earth is the person in front of you speaking like this. In fact whenever I hear a prof/ consultant speaking I am continuously interpreting all the words in my head. Trying to get down to the essence behind all the embellishment. They have models, frameworks and terms for even the most logical and intuitive things.
I am actually pretty glad not to do a full blown business degree sometimes it can difficult to take. But remove the business terms and all the fluff and it is extremely interesting.

Who invented high heels?!

The last purchase which I absolutely regret is a pair of formal heels for 50$.
Look incredible but feel horrible.
Understandably so. When you try and squeeze the five inches your toes take into a half an inch of space they are kind of piled on top of each other. Uggh..
Just add your feet suddenly being lifted in that position by three inches and bingo, suddenly walking doesn't come naturally anymore.
For starters they reduce the pace of my walk by one tenths and they make you concentrate on walking like never before.
Then after 2 minutes of walking/standing you experience immense and growing pain in your calf.
Then the back pain starts and obviously your toes used to the five inch space are trying to get used to the excruciating discomfort.
I have used these for precisely 3 occasions before permanently giving up on them.
Predictably, right now I am on a search for new pairs of formal FLAT shoes.
BTW shopping is always a joy.

Sudha Murthy

I just read One of Sudha Murthy's books called 'Wise and Otherwise'.
It was outstanding to say the least, written so simply and straight from the heart.
This book was some experiences from her life. She handles the philanthropic division of Infosys and came across as an honest and simple person.
I know I am stressing overly on simple but it is tough to remain the way she is being Narayanan Murthy's wife.
I admire her so much because she has always had the courage to stand by her convictions. Her book shows us very simple things( that honesty is not associated with wealth etc.) in a beautiful way.
A must read.

Fake for most parts

I hate the normal recruiting process. I find it artificial for most parts and it is a pain to go through it.
Firstly, I hate those career center instructions of always smiling and being absolutely energetic. In a career fair you see people scowling at each other in private and suddenly putting on this huge smile the moment they have to talk to a recruiter. In most cases the recruiter smiles back with equal honesty.
Then you see people talking so energetically, and explaining all what they have done in their career even if the recruiter does not ask. Trying to make that thirty second impression. I am so bad at this, it is not funny.
Eventually, if the recruiter asks what they did in their previous internship or job, they proceed to explain like it was the most incredible in the world. Its actually hilarious to observe this.
I don't want to start on the interview process but let me say this. If you probably wake up a person who has been to an interview recently at 2 in the night he will probably rattle of his strengths and weaknesses and how he was born to lead..
Coming to think of it, it makes recruiters' jobs pretty tough to find the real person behind all the smiles. It also beats me why they ask those cliche interview questions, maybe to check if the candidate can learn well.
Wish the recruitment process had more honesty in it.

Agonising

I am too critical of my writing and hate reading it again. I just write as a burst of expression and have to restrain myself from deleting it if I ever read it( it also doesn't help if you have Vinita as a friend).
Anyway the things I have promised myself to improve upon:
1. Speaking slowly. ( I speak at the rate of just 400 words per minute)
2. Writing without typos.( I have largely improved this, going through the painful process of re reading my stuff).

Optimizing the Amount

How much can you fill in a day? How much can you take on? These are a few questions that I occasionally have, essentially whether I am doing enough per day.
I remember last semester I was doing so much stuff, I nearly burned myself out towards the end of the semester. I wrote so much, I needed a huge break; with exams and auditing courses I felt I was saturated with information and thankfully my India hiatus came at the right time.
This semester I approached things cautiously. I resigned from writing opinion pieces, and started out writing once in 2 weeks. No auditing classes. Just the normal stuff.
And then I realized my days are nearly as full as before. I guess you just adapt yourself to however much you are doing to a certain extent. The more you believe you can do( as long as its not too much) the more you fit in every day. Period.
So I started taking on more stuff. Increased y writing to once a week. Started auditing a class which I liked. Simultaneously started working harder on getting Kiva's student chapter out and also joined a voluntary business consulting group.
For me what works now without burning myself is taking up a mix of things. Not exceeding a certain limit for each one. Which still makes you enthusiastic about it. Maybe it is different for different people.
Thankfully at the moment life is manageable. Touchwood!

Job security

How will I define job security? Not in ways most people define it. Not by the company and whether they have a reputation of firing people in bad times. Not by a comfortable government job( this is probably how my grandparents would!)
I am secured in my job if my work and what I contribute to the company cannot be replicated by anyone on this planet. Will my job give me the opportunity to provide that uniqueness? I hope so.
To make my point clearer I will give an example of two jobs which I do on campus. One in which I write for in the paper is unique, I am pretty sure no one can replicate my column. I bring my own unique perspective when I do gadget/ website reviews.. something which I believe is difficult to find. I have ideas to make the science page grow and opinions that will make sense.
On the contrary my other job is that of an assistant to a project manager. Most part of my job can be easily done by someone else. Its not rocket science and I haven't brought about something individualistic to it as I have brought to the other job. The only part which makes the job feel like this is mine, is when I am helping undergraduate students solve their problems. Maybe there I bring something of different value to my work.
Job security depends on an individual's contribution to his work, for most part. It is never defined by companies or economies.

A tribute

It is always important to take advice from the right people. Being the unsocial person I am here, I am glad to be in contact with few but important people who respond graciously to my bizarre queries. The few important people in US:
1. Amaresh bhaiya: I take his advice so seriously that I actually write it down. On the personal front, family friends but professionally a successful data analyst( at least that's what I think he does in Diamond). Who somehow understands how I hate technical stuff and like business stuff but I am in a sort of technical field. My constant encouraging email replier to my grumbles, idiotic queries and even book recommendations. Inspiring and irreplaceable( is that a word?).
2. Sujeev: The only senior I know of who managed to get funding while doing masters in the industrial department. Encourages me to take the toughest courses so that I learn, his advice has always always worked for me. If I am taking a 4th course or maybe extra work he always assures me its manageable.
3. Vidhi: A med school student, unfortunately far away in Dallas. My patient and rational sounding board for my crazy depressions/ ideas at times. The most rational person I have met, ever. Fun, brilliant and thankfully talks less than me.

PS1: For all the important people in India, will write one tomorrow.

Scared to death:

These are a few things I am scared of in life:

• Not being excited about going to work everyday
• Not utilising my potential before I die
• Losing my enthusiasm about learning
• Losing the love of reading and my intrinsic curiosity
• Getting married to a guy whom I don't love to death/ Dying single

Of varied interests: Part 2

So here I know something that I am going to be a pro at exists, but I am not sure what. Then came industrial engineering. I didn't want to go directly into an MBA, I somewhere still liked technical stuff.So industrial engineering came when I really needed someplace where I can get a business and mathematical intersect, and discover myself.
Here I am, as an industrial engineer and after some deliberation; have the vision of being a consultant. My strengths are peculiar:
1. I have a unique perspective on things.Essentially my opinion and feedback is unique in many ways
2. I am a natural analyzer and make natural comparisons between things in my head. Here note analyzing is not technical.
3. I like initiating things, more than most people do.
4. I am naturally interested in most things. I am interested in for example what is genomic, good design, whatever. This is the biggest hurdle I faced when choosing a career, I was told to go where I am interested in and here I have a hundred choices.. trust me that's not easy. The good part makes it that I am a natural learner. I have to keep learning no matter what I do, all the time or else I feel suffocated.
5. I love observing people and bringing together good talent, and identifying people with potential. This actually made me toy with the idea of becoming a HR manager for quite some time.

NOTE: I hate long blog posts so more on this in the next one.

Of varied interests: Part 1

I wonder, why everything is so well defined when it comes to choosing your career. It is so difficult for people like me, with no well defined interest and being curious about everything certainly doesn't help.
In India the structure of education being quite rigid,I had very little to choose from when I was entering college. I was interested in Mathematics more than biology so came the choice of being an engineer. Then came the choice of the engineering stream and I was relatively interested in physics than other things so came the choice of being a mechanical engineer.
Then into college I discovered I didn't like the complicated course maths was taking, I appreciated 2D maths and 3D calculus drove whatever little love I had left for the subject away. At the same time, I was dealing with vibrations and fluid mechanics, which were OK interesting in parts but they weren't completing me.
I was good in my subjects when I was in college, not the best because they didn't stimulate me to give my best to them. I would feel like a misfit learning them, they weren't coming to me naturally and I had to find out what comes to me like it comes to no one else.
I knew for certain it existed.

Its all about style!

I am no fashion guru, and the style I am talking about here is writing styles.
I hate words being used in the sentence to impress or just using words for the heck of it. This is a trend I have noticed in India, some people write clearly trying to impress. The point of writing is to get the point across, not to flaunt your new vocabulary( which is is clearly a misfit in every sentence). Every now and then I come across testimonials people write for each other in Orkut which are laughable because of the words used clearly to impress( they certainly make a bad impression). Why is the concept of good English and writing defined by the 'tough' words you use for such people? Even if you know words try and keep it to yourself, it is not necessary for the world to know.
For me no thesaurus exists, each word is unique and is applicable to different situations and has its own nuances. Discovering the complete meaning of each word is a joy.
I love things simple, to the point and crisp.

Inspiration Vs Imitation

To start there is a fine line between getting inspired and imitating. I have seen Hindi films which are 'inspirations' of an English film, but if I would be the producer of the corresponding English one I would go straight and sue the Hindi filmmaker right away. I thought getting inspired is to do some original work of your own because you are overwhelmed/ creatively stimulated by what just inspired you. Not nonchalantly copying the most part of your inspiration and 'in'geniusly changing the language/ costumes and then outrageously denying that you have nothing to do with the source whatsoever.
I have seen the case with fashion, books, articles where the entire idea is copied with not even a tribute to the original. At least add a tribute/ citation for something you 'know' is not your own. Or maybe the getting 'inspired' guys delude themselves to thinking it is.
On the contrary, to be in a position to inspire someone is a big deal...

In cycles..

I wonder whether this is the case with everyone but in my case creativity, enthusiasm comes in cycles. I wish this was not the case though.
An afterthought, so does reading in my case. Few years ago, I used to be in love with fiction, consuming almost anything in print. Now I prefer non fiction, but unlike a few months where I could not sleep until I read a few pages, I don't feel the need to read everyday. I am always on the lookout for great books, but it takes me 3 weeks to finish a 300 page novel. I am more interested in Walmart's story, Starbuck's story; essentially in stories but real stories.
Creativity moves along the same lines too. When I started writing a few months ago for my college newspaper I loved it. Then came days when you had to churn out stories at the same rate, but don't feel like writing but still have to( it's not a great combination). Thankfully I am pretty enthusiastic about writing now. You sort of develop a new found respect for journalists, artists and how they go through the same stuff everyday.
One thing about cycles: the peaks are awesome!

Who is out there?

This is post is titled pretty crazily, but ya I was wondering today whom am I writing for? I don't want to write for the whole world, I want a more selective audience(if any). I know my friends don't read this, they view this as interesting as a history chapter( they are mostly into the sciences). I guess I just want the world to know through my blogging but this is the world I don't know anything about. Its kind of like standing at the edge of the cliff and shouting out loud and not caring if anyone is listening.

Had a tough day, the third core member wasn't convinced, I am still on the look out. I just have one issue when I look for people I don't compromise. This is not a great thing, but I guess that's the way I am!

"Finding Nemo"

Well, I have promised myself to be more regular with my blog. Not because it took considerable time to retrieve it( I had nearly forgotten the URL), but because its nice to have a place where you can pen your thoughts. That way they don't stay in you head too much.
Anyway this new year has been good so far, my classes have started and today was an OK day. I wish my work will make me feel more stimulated, so I have been thinking of starting a student organisation of my own for quite some time now. It will be a student chapter on Kiva, an organisation I love for the work they do.
My problem right now is finding intelligent volunteers as the core group of the organisation. An out of box thinker. Someone who's voice I will respect. I have found one, he took some time getting convinced about the idea. I have another person in mind whom I will talk with tomorrow.
This search is driving me crazy, all I think about when I see new people is judging whether they will be good for the organization. I hope to kick start this in two weeks, 3 core members will be more than enough.
Talent is aways in demand, even in the worst of economies.