Posts

The Reptile Room

-
Image
Well, it was not exactly a room. It was a whole sprawling campus infested with all manners of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, tortoises and what not. In a manner of speaking. The creatures did not really want to be there. Probably like the young software engineers who didn’t want to be in their boxed enclosures within the towers of glass that were called software development blocks. I should have been happy at not being subject to those constraints being a proud denizen of the bench. But no! I wanted a project. And eventually I got one. And  how it came! Imagine this reptile being starved to hasten its natural demise to extract its skin to make one of those fancy handbags made without killing any animals. Then one fine day there is a change of mind and the powers that be decided to chuck it into a frog pool. First thing that may come to your mind is that the poor critter will drown. Assume it is a water snake complete with gills and all. Not sure though if the skin of a water snake can be
Post a Comment
Read more

A Bad Beginning?

-
Image
Get up in the morning, walk up to office just down the street, have breakfast, then head to your computer to check e-mails, read through and resend funny forwards, head to the coffee machine and for some nice coffee, come back and play some computer games, then catch up with your roomie for a cigarette, then get back to your seat for some cubicle gossip, then lunch. After lunch, head home for a nap. Post nap, catch the bus to the city to catch the evening show of the latest movie, have dinner and head back home. Come weekend head to the wine shop to get a few bottles of cheap liquor to keep you company as you embark on a journey of discovery through life, the universe and everything with your room mates. And nothing like Biryani at the local Malayalee Muslim hotel to top off the weekend. Or should you say bottoms out? And the icing on top of the cake - you get paid to do this. Idyllic life, isn’t it? Well, not really. Not when you got to do all this with a sword hanging over your head.
Post a Comment
Read more

Ikigai - The Search for Meaning

-
Image
  I have had this tenuous relationship with self help books. I have read quite a few of them. Yet I view them with skepticism. My skepticism works similar to Douglas Adam's proof of non existence of  God. In Douglas Adam's book, there exists a miracle fish called Babel fish which when put into someone's ear can translate any alien language into their own tongue. Now something so useful could not have evolved without the intervention of an intelligent creator, could it have? Instead he goes on to use the very fact to prove the intelligent creator's non existence. How? This is how. Now most religions hold that the basis of God is faith and there cannot be any proof as proof defies faith. Now, the existence of Babel fish offers proof which makes the faith hypothesis collapse thus disproving the existence of God. Now I came up with a similar logic to say  self help books do not work based to the fact that they are the highest selling genre of books. My reasoning goes like t
5 comments
Read more

Unraveling the Laws of Corporate Physics

-
Image
One of my favorite activities is perusing books in a library or book shop - the one activity I really miss due to the Covid lock down. I mean not entirely. During the years I was still able to indulge in this luxury, I have managed to collect over 500 books - so I can carry out this activity within the safety of the four walls of my home. Only thing is you don't get any surprises. For having bought each one of them, I know all the books. One of the books I came across during a jaunt at a local library was titled ' Factory Physics '. That got me musing about what Physics has to do with factory management, I ended up realizing that laws of Physics are applicable to almost every activity in life. Today I thought I will write about how laws of Physics can be applied to one's corporate life. I can talk about various laws of physics and their applicability to the corporate world. But that would take an entire book. Maybe one day I will write that book. But today I want to tal
Post a Comment
Read more

On the Job Teachers

-
Image
  Today is observed as teacher’s day in India - in the memory of Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India's second president who was known to be an eminent scholar. It is a day we pay tribute to our various teachers. We send our thoughts back down the memory lane and take a moment to remember our teachers from school and college. If we happen to be in touch with them, we probably even call them up and wish them. All that is fine and dandy you may say. But what the hell does it have to do with my corporate experiences? Isn’t that what this blog all about? Don’t I have 2 other blogs for writing about life, the universe and everything else? Patience, my friend! Patience! I am getting there. You know I have a penchant for not getting straight to the point. Which by the way is not a great thing to do while communicating in the corporate world. But this is my blog and that gives me a certain amount of creative license to take my readers along circuitous routes. You know, take the garden path
1 comment
Read more

Multiplying Time

-
Image
Time management is another of those topics that has bugged me for ages. I have always struggled with time. I mean on one hand I get stressed with deadlines and miss out lot of enriching experiences due to being stuck with work. On the other hand I end up just like that wasting hours and hours. So I always find the topic of the time management interesting. I have found lot of ideas interesting. But nothing has really ever worked. I don't know if it is because I have not persisted long enough or just not found the right one for me yet. Anyways here is yet another advice I have received on time management - this time from TEDx. From Self-Discipline Strategist Rory Varden, author of Take the Stairs, a #1 Wall St Journal and #2 New York Times bestseller and  Co-Founder of Southwestern Consulting™, an 8-figure global consulting practice. I wonder though if the answer is in the 15-minute video, why would anyone buy his books or take his consulting services? Anyways  here  is the
Post a Comment
Read more

Motivation for behavioral change

-
Image
So I happened to see one more TEDx video - this time on motivation for behavioral change. This is a topic I have been interested in for ages. I mean I have quit smoking, I have quit drinking but at times I feel there are things I just can't change. Social media addiction for instance. I don't know if to call it an addiction. But it does consume a lot of time and I am just unable to significantly reduce the time I spend on it. So I was interested when I came across the talk on this topic by Dr. Tali Sharot,a neuroscientist at University College London and the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is professor at Harvard. So I guess she must have some credibility, eh? I know I am judging by brands. But I mean.... So the talk is  here  if you want to watch it What she says: She starts of by putting across a hypothesis that humans are wired to filter our bad news. She gives the human reptilian brain's flight or fight instinct as the reason for the same. She prese
Post a Comment
Read more