Randomanandam's Philosophy (Reality Bites)

May 2017

Enough has been said about automation taking away IT jobs. Yes, jobs like testing, support, maintenance, QA, Admin, superficial people management, etc. are in the firing line. None of these are core jobs of a real software engineer. These jobs were created due to over-specialization and siloization of different tasks a software engineer does. These tasks are much lower in the pyramid of IT jobs. Process and workflow oriented, predictable, and repeatable. These are perfect candidates for automation.

From what I have learnt, core job of a software engineer is software design and programming. Ofcourse software has to be tested, deployed etc. In earlier days the same software engineer used to do all of it. This concept is now repackaged as DevOps. Design and development needs creativity, problem-solving, understanding requirements, story-telling, leadership, and conceptualization. None of these can be automated. So if your job has these elements you are are going to thrive in any situation.

Remember, a computer is a dumb machine and works very fast, but only as instructed by the programmer. It cannot think, has no intelligence (AI is not intelligence) and cannot ask questions.

So come what may, Programmers will rule.

Apr 2017

1. There is only one school of thought that can create a so-called anti-Romeo squad. That is - Every male in UP must be a Romeo and every female must be a Damsel in Distress.
2. Quick-service and self-service restaurants in Bangalore do not know how to treat a customer well. The customer is king until s/he pays and then he has to join the crowd of customers begging at the food counter. MNCs like Pizza Hut, Dominos, McD at least brought in a respectable level of customer service. Hope our Adigas, Darshinis, Dosa camps, etc. learn some thing instead of cribbing about competition.

Aug 2016

1. Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.
2. Har ek baat pe kehte ho tum ke tu kya hai, tum hi kaho yeh andaz-e-guftgu kya hai.
3. God had not idea that Man will imprison Him in religions.
4. Every man wants to be Rama, but remember, you will have to face a Ravan.
5. Humare baad ab mehfil main afsane bayaan honge, baharein humko dhoondengi na jaane hum kahan honge.
6. 250 years of Industrial Age has almost destroyed 4.5 billion years old Earth.
7. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. I am sure the medical industry will force government to ban apples.
8. Preventive medicine is good for the human, but not the medical industry. They can make money only by selling temporary cures.

Mar 2016

1. The burden of being great falls on those who are good, and they have no choice. The rest can only complain.

Feb 2016

1. In real world, theories are formulated after a lot of practical observation, inference, and conclusions. Whereas in our institutions of learning, you are made to cram the theory first, and hardly, if at all, apply it to completely understand it. For example, Issac Newton was about 28 years old when he invented differential equations, after spending month or years trying to explain the Laws of Motion. Now, we are made to study Differential Equations as abstract mathematical technique in high schools without even bothering about why it was invented in the first place.
2. History is always written by Rulers, and will certainly glorify themselves.
3. Truth is One, but you have to "engineer" multiple views of it!
4. My English is local, and my Hindi is international.
5. Someone said it, the CXOs are just glorified clerks!
6. God can give you a beautiful face, but to get a beautiful body you must do the hard work.
7. I do not need a middleman priest, guru, etc. to know God. I know God because I am a part of Him.
8. I have seen people abandon husband, mother, brother, kid, uncle and aunt to meet God in faraway temple on hills. God is watching all that happens, and will not give such people a chance to meet Him.
9. I would rather not cry to lighten my sorrows, for they give me the strength to fight till the end.
10. As phones get smarter, people are getting dumber.
11. The tragedy of India is that the least qualified people are trying to solve the primary problems, while the most qualified people are trying to solve least important problems.

May 2015

1. I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people. - Isaac Newton

Apr 2015

Zindagi aur zamane ki kashmakash se
Ghabrakar mere ladke mujhse poochhte hain
'Hamme paida kyun kiya tha?'
Aur mere paas iske siwa
Koi jawab nahin hai
Ki mere baap ne bhi mujhse bina pooche
Mujhe paida kiya tha
Aur mere baap se bina pooche unke baap ne, unhe,
Aur mere baba se bina pooche unke baap ne, unhe...
Zindagi aur zamane ki kashmakash
Pahle bhi thi ab bhi hai, shayad zyada,
Aage bhi hogi, shayad aur zyada.
Tumhi nayi leek dharana,
Apne beton se poochhkar unhe paida karna!

-- Harivansh Rai Bachchan

Eventually, we will all reach our destination, the grave.

Jan 2015

1. When you are a kid, you attend more birthday parties; when mid-aged, more weddings; when old, more funerals. Row, row, row, your boat gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life's but a dream.
2. Indians become Engineers more so for these reasons: peer-pressure, parent-pressure, lure of more money, marriage-market and dowry dynamics, international exposure, etc. I am sure less than 10% of them are serious and passionate about their work.

Dec 2014

1. It does not matter what was said, but who said it and how.
2. Can a radio enjoy the music it plays?
3. Can the created be more intelligent than the creator? We are talking artificial intelligence here.

July 2014

1. I have often come across "software engineers" who claim to be good in only one language, platform or technology. I recently came across someone who knows only JBoss and nothing else, not even the J2EE framework on which all such appservers are built. I call such "specialists" as "Graduate from JBoss School of Engineering"!

June 2014 (almost a year later)

1. Any amount of knowledge is not a replacement for imagination.

July 2013

1. A computer can solve problems really fast. But it does not know how to frame problems.

June 2013

1. There is a gap between theory and practice. Experience is the bridge to cross it.
2. Cars with tint films on windows help in committing crime, so our honorable Indian judges banned tint films in car. How logical. I can give them a few more rules on the same logic. Knives are used to kill, so ban knives in kitchens. People hang from ceiling fans to commit suicide, so ban ceiling fans, rather ban ceiling itself. Electric current kills, so ban electricity. Trains cause accidents, so ban trains. Cricket matches are fixed, so ban cricket.
3. Whenever there's news about "Cabinet Reshuffle", I wonder if it is more than just shuffling furniture in the legislative assembly!
   

Apr 2013

1. What's wrong with Indian IT Industry? My take.
2. After graduation you study the same subjects once more and get postgraduation!
   

Mar 2013

1. The higher you go, the lesser you can afford to fall.
2. If you worry about worries, then you will have more worries.
   

Feb 2013

1. PhD is all about knowing more and more about less and less to the point of knowing everything about nothing.
2. Engineers are involved in value-creating activities, while MBAs are busy in value-counting activities.
3. Employees pay tax on the salary and then spend remaining money. Businessmen first spend as much as they can, and then pay tax on "minimum salary".

Sep 2012

1. Guzre teri gali se, deedar-e-yaar ke liye; bangaye nazarana tere padosi ke liye.

Jul 2012

1. A story about Einstein has one of his students stand up 15 minutes into an exam saying, "The questions in this year's exam are the same as last year's exam." Einstein replied, "Don't worry; the answers are different this year."
   

May 2012

1. She comes as hope to dissapoint you; She comes as an angel to lead you to hell; She comes as a ray of light to leave you in darkness.
2. Fading vision is a sign of wisdom :) Atleast we stop seeing too many faults in others.

Apr 2012

1. The Universe will nurture you in the most appropriate way, but for that to happen, you must do what you love to do.
2. We have software engineers who know nothing about fundamentals of data structures. When questioned, they reply casually, "I studied all this long ago, and forgot it all.". Would you be comfortable to go under the knife with a surgeon who has forgotten the human anatomy, just because he studied it long ago?
3. Roads are jammed due to roadwork, taps are dry due to waterwork, food grains and vegetables rot due to bad storage, economic crises are due to economic policies - see any pattern here? Anything that our government does, is by definition, completely screwed up!
    

Mar 2012

1. Bangalore to Ajmer, distance of 2200 km. Ajmer Express takes 60 hours (2.5 days) for the journey. The Chinese Bullet Train takes 7 hours to cover this distance. Mera Bharath kahan?
2. The irreducible complexity in living systems completely eliminates evolution driven by random improvements. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is more like Jugaad.
    

Feb 2012

1. End of Season Sale! Buy more winter clothes when winter ends?
2. The best thing to do with your money? Spend it right now!
3. Old proverb: "What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end." 

Dec 2011

1. Why do we Indians boil tea till it's hot like Sun itself, and them phoo-phoo while sipping it? I read tea has anti-oxidants, but I think we oxidize them too!
2. Why do people claim to fast, and then eat sabu dana khichidi, potato chips, gud-chana, banana, drink milk, fruit juice, ...buuurrrrppp!
3. Why do people skip the essential sleep, force themselves out of bed, do yoga, pranayam, kapalbhati, drink amla juice and aloe vera juice, and still look very exhausted and tired?
4. Mobile phones are like seasonal flowers. New ones bloom every month!
5. Evolution: From the age of apes to age of apps.

 June 2011

1. The only way to fail is by giving up.
2. Modernization saves effort and time so that you can catch more diseases and die.

May 2011

1. The fake grass is always greener.
2. "Life is one large conflict of interest." - Environment Minister Jayaram Ramesh, GoI.
3. Clone found!
4. Bliss comes at multiple levels.
5. What's usual? I have no idea.
6. Pain is the by-product of happiness.
7. Giving answers for all questions is great, just make sure they are relevant.

Apr 2011

1. You bring laughter, hope, dreams, peace, excitement, and love. Without any of these life is meaningless.
2. There are only three ways to learn: Directly from the Master, from a book, or through experience.
3. Initially its about quantity, later quality takes precedence.
4. More on Woman's Shopping Algorithm: Days after having bought an item, she will not be completely satisfied with it. She will observe other women's reaction, and may still want to exchange it!
5. Suna hai usko mohabbat duaein deti hai,
   jo dil pe chhoth toh khaye magar gila na kare.
6. Bhool jaaonga tujhe yeh toh nahin keh sakta, dil pe chalta hai kaho zor mohabbat karke.
   Phir bhi is baat ki leta hoon kasam aye humdum, mai na tadpaaonga tujhko nafrat karke.
   - Ibrahim Aashiq

Mar 2011

1. God plucked a flower from his Garden. My father went back to his place in the heavens. Expired on March 4, 2011, 7:15 P.M. IST. He will continue to live eternally in our memories.

Feb 2011

1. When I will meet my Maker, I will ask Him my Class Definition.
2. Once I explained a friend of mine the different ways to have spiritual experience. After my painfully lengthy monologue, he replied, "I just gulp some pegs of local spirits, and I get my spiritual experience!".
3. The artist completes the painting in his mind before even touching the canvas.
4. Once you attain it, you will lose interest in it.
5. India becoming a superpower? For me, a country is superpower only if it can first provide for the basic needs of its people. Food, housing & sanitation, education, health, water, roads, transport, electricity, communications, employment, security - tell me where is India world-class in these essentials for a common man? This is a collective failure of its people and its government. It is good to dream for inspiration, but we have to make efforts to realize the dreams.
6. We Indians have always lived in scarcity and accepted it as our destiny. This is the only reason why India cannot become the land of prosperity. The day we realize that our destiny is in our hands, we will break free from the bonds of poverty.
7. Like I heard somewhere, there is nothing scientific about the scientific community.
8. Successful people never claim that they struggled to succeed. They just followed their dreams and did whatever they could to realize it. Successful people don't act like victims of circumstances, or go around looking for sympathy.
9. A lot of research being carried out now-a-days is 100% crap. Every topic of research is too narrow to lead to realistic conclusions. Follow them at your own risk. Examples:
1. Earlier it was said that one must stretch before serious physical exercises. Now scientists say stretching is of no use! But every morning even a street dog stretches!
2. We were earlier told that talking on mobile while driving can be risky and cause accidents. Quite obvious. Now they say talking while driving is good because it keeps you from getting bored! Quite obvious again!
10. Every moment the Sun is either rising or setting somewhere. Your experience of sunrise or sunset is because of your position on Earth.
11. You cannot understand the forest by observing each tree separately.
12. A model is a simplification of reality. Trying to make it precise and complete goes against the intention.
13. Creative work is intensely personal. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
14. Driving innovation from boardroom will always fail.
15. In a consensus-based decision making process, it can get difficult to kill bad ideas.
16. A software programmer must have the ability to abstract ideas out of reality.
17. Children are always pure. As they grow into adults, they become adulterated.
18. Nothing has really changed in the Software Engineering world for the last two decades. We have only seen rehashes of old ideas, processes, and tools, with new names and jargons.

Jan 2011

1. Beginners tend to over-rate themselves while experts tend to under-rate themselves.
2. We should reinvent the wheel whenever there is a need. If we never reinvented the wheel, we would still be using the primitive wooden wheel invented by stone age humans, and maybe pulling the levers of a mechanical calculating machine, built using wooden wheels!
3. She thought he will change after marriage; and when he changed, she lamented, O God! You have changed!
4. Her life became boring after she married a perfect man.
5. I think women's liberation movement was highly successful. Women lost their feminity, and men are having a great time!
6. Anything made by man will fail, eventually.
7. The reality depends on the model used to explain it.
8. My belief in God is so private that I appear to be an atheist in public.
9. औरत एक रुपये की बात एक हज़ार बार करती है; मर्द एक हज़ार रुपये की बात एक बार करता है. A woman talks about 1 Rupee one thousand times. A man talks about 1000 Rupees one time.
10. Don't ask how much someone can give you; ask yourself how much can you receive.
11. No one would have thanked you so much...
1. Thank You for being the bitterness of my life, it made me discover the sweetness.
2. Thank You for being the noise in my life, it made me discover the joy of music.
3. Thank You for being the darkness of my life, I discovered the colors in my life.
4. Thank You for being the thorn in my life, it made be discover the beauty of roses.
5. Thank You for being the darkness of my nights, I learnt to enjoy the moonlight.
6. Thank You for being cruel to me, I discovered the kindness inside me.
7. Thank You for being my enemy, I made new friends.
8. Thank You for being away from me, I found joy and comfort in the company of my friends.
9. Thank You for insulting my feelings, I found others who value it.
10. Thank You for leaving me alone, I realized that silence is truly bliss.
11. Thank You for belittling my efforts to make you happy, I realized I am living with a stone.
12. Thank You for hating me, I found people of who are worthy of my love.
13. Thank You for insulting my relatives, I realized that blood relations are forever.
14. Thank You for insulting my beliefs, it increased my confidence in myself.
15. Thank You for being the cold of my life, I found the warmth I had in me.
16. Thank You for being stone-hearted, I learnt I have a bigger and better heart.
17. Thank You for attempts to destroy my life, I discovered that someone has been protecting me in all births.
18. Thank You for finding faults in me, I realized that you can see nothing else.
19. Thank You for destroying my home, I realized I can build another.
20. Thank You for causing so much pain, I discovered infinite pleasures in my life.
21. Thank You for leaving me alone, I realized that I can live alone anyways.
22. Thank You for making me almost kill myself, now I will live a long life.
23. Thank You for ignoring me, I learnt to be independent.
24. Thank You for breaking my heart, I experienced love.

Dec 2010

1. I heard that angels come in disguise, but I could tell.
2. Drinking alcohol is a social activity for some and anti-social activity for others.
3. It takes a lifetime to really know someone.
4. There will be times when you will forget near and dear ones while tackling problems of the world! But those people will not see the greater cause and only find faults in you.
5. Woman: Would you still love me if I was fat?
   Man: Would you still love me if I was poor?
6. The more you work on a problem, the more you complicate it. One should know where to stop. This is all the more important when you are fighting that invisible ghost called "complexity" in Software Engineering.
7. The laws of nature that took a lifetime to be discovered are now being taught to school kids as a matter of fact. How much will they ever learn? Modern education is all about stuffing information into the brain without any ability to use it.
8. The Art of Living: Build some minimalistic resort, call it an ashram; have regular mumbo-jumbo sessions, call it satsang; make the morons pay for it all; enjoy life. Teach them how to breathe, or they will die and you will end up paying for it.
9. Reverse the cause and effect relation and see if it still makes sense. If it does, then probably you have a wrong conclusion. Example: Nice men are married; married men are nice.
10. The Moonfaced will radiate her beauty when the Sun sees her.
11. Our mind is the ultimate Time Machine. You can relive any moment. You can pause, slow, rewind, forward, accelerate or decelerate time.

Nov 2010

1. If you find solutions in problems, then you are a Developer. If you find problems in solutions, then you are a Tester. If you find only problems then you are a Manager. If you find only solutions then you are an Architect. Just stay true to your nature, like water always flows from high to low level.
2. Science is generally objective; Religion is generally subjective.
3. If you don't like to do something, find a better way to do it.

Oct 2010

1. Wisdom does not come in bottles like tonic.

Sep 2010

1. A Man's Shopping Algorithm
1. Decide what to buy
2. Drive to a shop
3. Enter and pick items
4. Pay and get out
2. A Woman's Shopping Algorithm
1. Don't know what to buy
2. Drive to a mall
3. Walk around seeing what to buy
4. Visit shops and pick random items
5. See what others have bought
6. Reselect items to buy
7. Wonder if it is a good bargain
8. Pay and get out
9. Again enter shops and return a few items
10. Repeat from Step #3
3. The best managers and founders in Indian business world come from Jugaad School of Management.
4. You will be bored of whatever you have; and miss whatever you don't have.
5. Some people do everything on "need basis", and others on "interest basis".

Aug 2010

1. My friend says: A man is as young as he thinks; woman is as old as she looks.
2. Whatever you learnt before you were 30 is useless; and whatever you learnt later is too late to be used.

July 2010

1. Business Funda: Never say anyone that your job is easy.
2. Business Funda: Never say anyone that you are free.
3. Business Funda: "Perception" is reality.
4. Business Funda: People will definitely see what you show. Exercise caution.
5. Business Funda: Under-promise and over-deliver, not the other way round.
6. Business Funda: If you make a promise, someone will remember it and it will come back to haunt you.
7. Three important qualities of a new manager/leader - patience, patience, patience.
8. Kal ka bachha aaj boss ban gaya - your peers will take time to accept new reality.

June 2010

1. Each person generally has three levels of standard; one is personal, another for family members, and third for rest of the world.
2. Anything observed closely ceases to exist.
3. To achieve desirelessness, one must have strong desire to be without desire. Easier option is to just satisfy your desires.
4. To cure a disease, the doctor must know the patient.
5. I have no idea about enlightenment. If I ever achieve it, I won't be able to explain it to you.
6. A painter without intelligence is worth less than the brush he holds.
7. Every positive thing has a negative effect if overdone or overused.
8. If God stands for love, why are people god-fearing?

 May 2010

1. Never refuse an invitation or a challenge.

April 2010

1. It is simply complicated. Simple when you experience it; and complicated if you try to understand.
2. Most of the education that we all go through is actually brainwashing. It limits your curiosity and learnability by stuffing your brains with dead knowledge!

 March 2010

1. Those who are used to living in prison cannot enjoy freedom.
2. Seeking happiness is itself the cause of all sorrows.
3. Interest can fade with time, but thirst only increases. Thirst has to be quenched.
4. Myths become realities, and realities become myths.
5. What you don't have is what you really want.
6. What you have is good, but the other one is better.
7. Love should not become a dependency; support should not become crutches.
8. To start, you have to dream.
9. Sometimes I take the long route home.
10. I know who she is not, but I know not who she is. 
11. Two eyes, two ears, one mouth - see more, hear more, talk less.
12. Not surprisingly, you will find many namesake swamies selling snake oil in the name of spirituality.
13. The more particles you smash, the more you will find new ones.
14. From "sexual inclusion" to "spiritual seclusion", Nityananda is one hardcore swami.
15. This Universe can't be explained by trivial cause-and-effect theories.

February 17, 2010

1. Why do these new-age swamis have "ananda" in their names? Are they seeking some kind of "anand" (bliss)? Materialists have been living blissfully all the while!

January 29, 2010

1. Academic excellence is through competition. Corporate excellence is through cooperation.

January 28, 2010

1. When abilities are inadequate, looks become more important.
2. In a girls' night out, the main topic is men.

January 24, 2010

1. If a problem can be solved, then there's no need to worry about it. If a problem cannot be solved, then there's no need to worry about it.
2. I make my own reality.

January 20, 2010

1. A salesman will always praise every product he sells.

December 22, 2009

1. Don't bother too much about people pointing you your mistakes.

December 8, 2009

1. Abstracting too much will disconnect you from reality.
2. My Management Policy: Provide more carrots to influence behaviour than use sticks to force behaviour. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are drivers of excellence.
3. Accidental complexity in software will continue to exist unless developers use their intelligence and simplify things during the design itself.

December 7, 2009

1. You can predict anything. If your prediction does not come true, you can always reinterpret your prediction in new light. This is how astrologers, stock brokers, and weatherman survive.

 November 30, 2009

1. Good programmers are hardly good in using debugging tools.

November 11, 2009

1. Time is relative to pleasantness or unpleasantness of the experience.

November 3, 2009

1. Luck = right time + right people + right place
2. Faster, Cheaper, Better - Choose any 2.
3. Present + Past = Future is screwed
4. Present - Past = Future is better
5. Even the most beautiful model must wear makeup.

October 29, 2009

1. What's better: 1 thousand Rupee gift, or 5 two hundred Rupee gifts?
2. First believe it, then you will see it.
3. Don't mix business with pleasure, though it is a pleasure to do business with interesting people.

October 6, 2009

1. Your coffee will taste the same in any cup, but a nice cup can enhance the experience.

September 8, 2009

1. Don't concentrate too much on any matter because it will get twisted.

June 30, 2009

1. Quality cannot be added to a product after it has been made. It is not like adding salt to the food. Quality has to be built-in.

June 27, 2009

Away from the urban chaos, we drove over the hills. Green fields, forests, rain, cool breeze, sunshine, flowers, creepers, sitting on the rocks looking over the valley, water droplets falling down from the leaves, mist blowing away; monkeys, birds, lizards and worms; hopping down the hills when it rained, ran into an abandoned house. The Sun and Moon spent the whole day on Earth. There was no coffee, but why would we need it?

June 22, 2009

1. Agreed that the Sun is the primary source of energy for the Earth and Earth has to revolve around it. But Sun is just a ball of fire and all the fun and life is on Earth.
2. I looked up the night sky and found only stars. The moon was walking with me, hand in hand.

June 18, 2009

1. For a long-term relationship, one must have short-term memory.
2. Wish fulfilled: I found my lost friend.
3. If something is "not your cup of tea", take it as a "pint of beer".
4. Time is a manifestation of your mind. People age because they are always catching up with time.

June 11, 2009

1. Mind lives either in the past or the future. Heart lives only in the present.

June 10, 2009

1. Only people who carry the opinion of others need the support of others. - Osho

June 4, 2009

1. Tip for good health: Breakfast like a king, lunch like a subject, and dine like a beggar.
2. Make sure your friend, philosopher, and guide are three different people who do not know each other.
3. If I ever get lost, it is intentional.

June 2, 2009

1. Never promise anything to anyone when you are too happy, and never say anything to anyone when you are too angry.
2. Everyone has their own sense of perception. We all may focus on same things but see things differently.
3. We all have a "date of birth". But were we actually born? Do you remember that moment when you were born?

May 24, 2009

1. Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. - Albert Einstein
2. What you resist persists. - Carl Jung
3. Think before you ask anything from God, He might just be too generous. Like giving you a flood when all you asked for was a drizzle.
4. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Management Guru Pramod Batra
5. When a man you like switches from what he said a year ago, or four years ago, he is a broadminded person who has the courage enough to change his mind with changing conditions. When a man you don't like does it, he is a liar who has broken his promise. - Management Guru Pramod Batra

May 21, 2009

1. The audience claps only after the clown has finished his performance.
2. Always return whatever you receive with interest.
3. Don't dwell too long on the shortcoming of others. Sure, your husband has faults. If he had been a saint he would have never married you, right?
4. For every 10 minutes you are angry, you lose 600 seconds of happiness!
5. The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his tail.

May 17, 2009

1. When you realize the truth, you will find words to express it.

May 15, 2009

1. Ek haseen shaam ko dil mera kho gaya. Full Song
2. Baad muddat ke yeh ghadi aayi. Full Ghazal
3. Abhi aaye ho baitho to, yeh mausam bhi suhana hai. Abhi to haal-e-dil tumko nigahoon se sunana hai. Full Song

May 14, 2009

1. Life is a fantasy.
2. One must always tell the truth in the right way; otherwise be silent.

May 12, 2009

1. The more I think about the problems I have, the worser my life gets.
2. We attach our happiness to others' and end up being unhappy.

May 4, 2009

1. For half a pound of sasuage it's not worth buying the pig. - Grassroots Economist Alex
2. Nature uses epidemics as a way to control reckless exploitation by humans.

May 2, 2009

1. The idea of falling in love is far more enticing than actually falling in love.
2. I fell in love so many times that I finally married before it could hurt more.
3. Read behind an autorickshaw: Love is slow poison. If this is true, why does it make life sweeter?

April 27, 2009

• Elephants do not run like rabbits.
• Professors never graduate.

April 26, 2009

1. If you think your parents' life is boring and they are not "cool", it has become like that after paying all your bills. - Educator Charles Sykes
2. Your thoughts and your feelings create your life. It will always be that way. Guaranteed! - Lisa Nichols
3. Everything that's coming into your life was attracted by you into your life. It's attracted to you by virtue of the images that you are holding in your mind. It's what you are thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you. - Law of Attraction
4. Look at every crisis as an opportunity to excel. But make sure others see the "crisis".

April 23, 2009

1. The best environment slogan: Save Earth, this is the only planet with girls! - Lover Boy Alex.
2. I will never vote a political party which does not believe in "Right to Flirt". If the party is too busy harassing girls just because they wear pants and talk to boys, then it does not deserve to be elected.

April 22, 2009: Grooming

1. Irrespective how well a person is dressed, always look at his shoes. If they are not polished, forget him. He is not worth knowing.
2. 55% of the first impression you project is based on your appearance. People will judge you even before you have spoken. Your dressing sends a very powerful message of your status, your position, your personality, and your success.
3. God made man, but the tailor gives the finishing touch.
4. Wearing black often shows your lack of dressing sense.
5. Never wear free-size clothing, even if you got it free. Clothes must always fit.

April 17, 2009

1. You would never claim to have visited a city just because you read its "city guide", would you? The map is not the territory. Would you claim to be a surgeon after reading books on surgery? Bookish knowledge is just like that, useless unless applied.
2. Don't just wish to be something. Just be.
3. If the success of your project depends on "heroic deeds" of your team members most of the time, then your project is in crisis and needs immediate corrective action.
4. You will always find people repackaging old ideas into new and calling it revolutionary. It is a nice way of marketing.
5. You cannot cleanup any mess without making your hands dirty.
6. You cannot afford to lose soldiers in every battle and hope to win the war.

April 15, 2009

1. We sow the seeds in the ground, but the mangoes grow on top. - Budding management guru Karthikey Hegde.
2. Most managers are driven by the fear of unknown. Ensure that your manager has adequate information about the situation to keep him under control.

April 13, 2009

1. Teaching by example isn't one of the ways to teach. It is the only way to teach. - Einstein
2. If you keep your standards low, then everybody is worth it!

April 12, 2009

1. Being successfull is like riding a tiger. You cannot afford to get down.
2. There is nothing like "smart work" and "hard work". Every work can be either "hard" or "smart" depending upon the approach and attitude one has towards the work. People who claim to work hard are just not thinking smarter.
3. Success is a moving target. Staying continuously successfull is like chasing a moving shadow.
4. Everyday is not successfull, but you have to be a leader everyday.
5. Ensure that your work is of highest quality. It should not come back to you.
6. If you are too good to be in your current role, you will get promoted when the time is right.
7. If what you do is so specialized that no one else can do it, then rest assured you will not get promoted - you are too critical to do something else. Always disseminate knowledge and make yourself available for bigger challenges.
8. In today's fast changing business environment your employability is directly proportional to your learnability.

April 9, 2009

1. Managers must credit the team for success and blame themselves for failure.
2. Never react, always respond.
3. People can't change their nature by aspiring to be somebody else. They have to first accept and come to terms with whatever they are. - Panchatantra
4. Do not run away from your problems because eventually your problems will catch you.
5. A foolish king with wise advisers is far better than a wise king with foolish advisers. - Panchatantra
6. Managers must not see high-performing talented team members as threat. Give those members greater responsibilities and earn their loyalty.
7. The collective intelligence of a team is generally higher than that of its manager. Managers must leverage that to achieve organizational goals.
8. What comes easy goes easy.
9. Your car won't give you more mileage just because you replaced the fuel tank with a bigger one.
10. Get the most bang for every buck you spend.
11. Every problem has a short-term solution which is like instant gratification. Do not get too satisfied with the quick fix that you forget the long-term solution.
12. The biggest challenge in solving any problem is to first identify the problem.

Timeless

1. Sometimes it is better to be away from the crowd instead of standing out in the crowd. - Hugh Mcleod
2. Checkout the black and white photography in this song. Superb camera and lighting work. Unbeatable lyrics. किसी मे यह कशिश कहाँ जो आपे मे हुज़ूर है, मेरा दिल मचल गया तो मेरा क्या कसूर है.
3. My good friend advised: One must always have a private corner where one can unwind and be oneself. I quite believe her now.
4. Don't promote your employee to a manager's role unless you are sure that has satiated desire for individual success. People who are still hungry for individual success cannot be generous enough to give credit to the teams.
5. My Management Policy: Remember that you are the boss only during working hours. Remove that boss-mask before going home.
6. My Management Policy: Do not use your security guard as a receptionist. The guard's job is to suspect everyone, and not smile and welcome them.
7. My Management Policy: Do not make visitors wait too much.
8. My Management Policy: Be generous while praising, and stingy while criticizing.
9. Do we really need an MBA degree to run a business? Maybe not, but we really need MBAs to bankrupt successful companies.
10. Once I went to see a dance. But what I really saw was a dancer performing the dance. I insisted on seeing the dance only, minus performer. You think I am stupid? If so, how come you want to understand the software development process without understanding the people who run the process?
11. My Management Policy: Hire good people and let them work.
12. Can a singer exist without the song? Can a song exist without the singer?
13. We easily find flaws in everyone because we have flaws too.
14. Never discuss religion with a religious person because for most of them it is a matter of faith and not intellectual stimulation.
15. Democracy is based on numbers. If more citizens vote foolishly, we will get foolish leaders. If you sell your vote for a lungi or a bottle of liquor then it is the cheapest deal for your "leaders".
16. If you want happiness for a week, go on a vacation. If you want happiness for a month, get married. If you want happiness for a year, inherit wealth. If you want happiness for a lifetime, learn to love what you do.
17. Never go to sleep with an argument unsettled.
18. Mediocre workers always expect their boss to appreciate them. Top performers have no such expectations because their work speaks for them.
19. Not all managers are good leaders and not all leaders are good managers.
20. Management is a role assigned to you by your boss. Leadership is a position bestowed on you by your followers.
21. You can manipulate things and become a manager, but never a leader.
22. If your boss is friendly, do not take that for granted.
23. Find the extra-ordinary within the ordinary.
24. Buddha did not invent Buddhism. His followers did, and even multiple versions of it!
25. The foolish are absolutely certain and the wise are hesitant.
26. What's the point in knowing the future if you cannot change it?
27. There is a child, a parent, and an adult inside everyone of us. The child wants to enjoy, the parent wants to control and the adult wants to question everything. Don't base your actions on either of these three - achieve a balance by staying in the center of this triangle.
28. The more you try to be different, the more you will end up being same as you were.
29. Think about it: All religions promise you paradise, but only after your death. Why is there no religion that promises everything in this life itself?
30. Be like salt in the food. It's presence makes the food tasty, and its absense is sorely missed.
31. What Women Want? Let them figure it out. Till then, we guys can play golf.
32. Did God create Man in his image, or Man created God in his image?
33. The worst way to avoid mistakes is to not do anything.
34. Common sense is not so common.
35. Don't always believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, because, it could be a train approaching towards you.
36. There should be a method in madness, and not madness in method.
37. Spirituality has nothing to do with religion.
38. You make what you measure. If you are measuring how many hours your engineers sit at their desk, the engineers will make sure they just sit there all the times.
39. Straight trees fall first during a storm. Be flexible. Go with the flow.
40. Sometimes you have to do certain things for "public consumption", even if it is against your wishes.
41. Perception is more important than the reality. People must get to see you as a "good person", regardless of what you actually are.
42. All spiritual gurus talk about "being in the present", but hardly anyone tells you how. One way to find out is to spend a few hours with a child.
43. Don't follow my footprints because they are everywhere.
44. Sometimes we have to make mistakes so that others can learn from it.
45. To learn new things, first we have to unlearn.
46. Sense of humor does not mean that you laugh at everything.
47. How do you describe the taste of a mango?
48. A sitar can produce music only when the strings have the right tension. Too tight, or too loose, and you have no music.
49. A good teacher never teaches. He just makes his students learn.
50. No one can show you the path to salvation, because none of those who went there ever came back.
51. Don't use your brain as a memory device.
52. A knowledgeable person need not be intelligent, and an intelligent person need not be knowledgeable.
53. No amount of book-knowledge can equal the wisdom of experience.
54. A rich person is one that can spend money, not just make it.
55. You will hear what you want to hear, and see what you want to see. A conditioned mind cannot be receptive.
56. The ignorant will argue endlessly, while the intelligent chooses to remain silent.
57. All religions are man-made and thrive by making you feel guilty.
58. I pray God not to come to Earth. We already have enough problems.
59. God loves everyone, including atheists. But followers of God hate each other.
60. It is the sign of an educated mind to entertain an idea without accepting it. - Aristotle
61. Not all well wishers are good to you. Some wish that you were in well.
62. Often, the chase is more exciting than the end.
63. Complexity is the essence of software. Software development will remain a complicated job. Learn to manage the complexity instead of looking for "silver bullets".
64. There is no process for creativity. Processes help you to be systematic and structured, but at the same time discourage innovation and "out of box" thinking.
65. Anything that can happen has happened or will happen in some other universe in some other space or time.
66. Fire is not cold and ice is not hot. But fire can heat ice, and ice can cool fire.
67. Love is a matter of chemistry. Marriage has a biological purpose. Staying married is a matter of physics - balancing the different forces to maintain an equilibrium.
68. Happiness is a state of mind. If you want to be happy, you will be, under any circumstance. Don't look for happiness outside of you.
69. Love at first sight is rarest of rare. Always don't mind taking a second look.
70. If you want to be happy, make others happy. Happiness multiplies when shared, sorrows divide when shared.
71. It is good that beauty is skin-deep. Otherwise I would have to dissect you.
72. Copy in a 3-hour exam and you will get debarred. Copy for 3 years and you will get a PhD.
73. It does not matter 'what' you do, but 'how' you do. You can commit biggest fraud with finesse, and get away with it - as long as you can.
74. Meditating is not as difficult as people make it out to be. It is a self-regulated act of bringing your mind to focus on one and only one thing. Read your favourite book for an hour without distraction - and tell people that you meditate.
75. A fish in pond is better than two in hand.
76. We judge a person completely by looking at very few dimensions of his life.
77. Some people have this habit of comparing everything (including people) and are never satisfied by the "first one" they get. They should always skip the first one.
78. Anything will sell, if the price is right.
79. When you have to decide between your gut feel and logic, obey your gut feel. This is because you will always be able to justify anything using logic, but this is not the case with your guts. (Intution overrules logic).
80. Bark when you are with dogs, mew when you are with cats. Doing it any other way will make you dead meat.
81. If everyone can understand you, then you are probably not that interesting to know more about.
82. Youth is idealistic. Tempered by life's onslaughts, they become realistic.
83. Whatever you say will be 'miss'understood by your wife and used against you repeatedly for atleast the next five years.
84. It is difficult to keep things simple. Complicating simple matters comes naturally to us humans.
85. Select three, love two, marry one. Make sure all the six of them are different.
86. Tip for Good Health: Be dirty. No one likes dirty people, including germs.
87. We should not repeat mistakes. Never marry again :)
88. Marry after you get bored of yourself. Have kids when you are bored of your spouse. Take sanyas when you are bored of kids.
89. Academic excellence is no indicator of professional excellence, and vice versa.
90. To conclude is to be incomplete.
91. I have heard people say, "I want to first get settled in life, only then blah blah blah". I think you get settled only once - when you die.
92. Watch a silly movie every once in a while. It will make you feel better because you realize that someone is a bigger moron than yourself.
93. Be original. Don't get infection from others. Spread new diseases.
94. I think Darwin is right, our ancestors were monkeys. No wonder we behave so much like them.
95. Both coolies and software engineers work on platforms.
96. You can never meet your boss's expectations consistently, because his/her expectations will always increase.
97. Absolute free will is an illusion. Your subconsciousness is actually calling the shots and your conscious mind is tricked into believing that you are the master of your own destiny.
98. Be yourself wherever you go. You are not the cultural ambassador of your country.
99. 90% of job satisfaction is derived from 10% of creative work. Remaining work is accidental - just do it because it has to be done.

We Should Reinvent the Wheel!

It has been already done. Why do you want to reinvent the wheel?
Why did Google reinvent the search engine when it was already invented by Yahoo! and likes?
What was the need to keep reinventing the first wheel humans made in primitive times?
Because someone has already done it, am I wasting my time doing it again? My way?
Innovation
--> Necessity is the mother of invention.
--> Change is the only constant.
--> Different times, different needs.
--> We can always do better.
--> It is human to invent and reinvent.
Reinventing the wheel is evolution.
If I have to believe Darwin's Theory of Evolution, nature has constantly reinvented herself, and will continue to do so. If I am a product of evolution, I will also continue to reinvent. Hate me if you don't like me.
Why do your thoughts keep changing? Aren't you supposed to have been created and finished once for all?
If we never reinvented, for example, we would still have the age-old mechanical computers or vaccum tube computers which would stop working every few minutes because some screw came off or some tube got fried.
So you mean that we have achieved perfection? No scope for further improvement?

Managing a Software Development Team

Software development is difficult
--> Complex
--> Changeable
--> Invisible
--> Conform
Software Development is Creative Work
Map is the Destination - Design is Construction
People
--> Hiring
--> Training
--> Skills (Soft and Hard)
Processes
--> Freedom and Control
--> Flexibility - Do What Works?
--> Agile, Predictive, Prescriptive?
Manager
--> Traits, Personality, Character
--> Technical Leadership
--> People Management
--> Extent of Supervision/Freedom
--> "Herding Cats?"
Tools
--> Silver Bullet?
--> Are Costly Tools Required?

Be Reborn or Live Longer?

Fighting against diseases.

Accidentally creating new diseases - AIDS, Mad Cow.

Longer lifespan --> longer old age --> bigger population of old depending on young productive population.

Nature's control mechanism - floods, earthquakes, famines, epidemics, global warming.

Spiritual evolution.

Vegetarianism

The Food Chain.
Man's position and role in the Universal Food Chain.
Closer to source, better the feed quality.
Accumulation of pesticides and toxins as ones goes up the food chain.
Economics of Vegetarian food and meat production.
Human body suitable for meat?
Benefits of Vegetarianism Vs. Meat-eating.
--> Health, Economic, Spiritual, etc.

Rain Water Harvesting

Yet to start!

Energy Crisis

Global Ecosystem severly damaged due to reckless indusrialization and deforestation.
Oil! Oil! Oil!
Too much dependence on fossil fuels.
What's the alternative?